EuroBusiness Media (EBM): Plastic Omnium, the world leader in automotive body modules, fuel tanks, and waste containers, reports its full-year results for 2012. Laurent Burelle, welcome. You are the Chairman and CEO of Plastic Omnium, what are your comments on your full-year results?
Laurent Burelle: 2012 has been quite a good year. We have over-performed our market. We have posted better-than-the-consensus results. We have had a growth in our EBIT and net results after tax. And we have developed nice free cash flow. So 2012, obviously, has been quite a good year.
EBM: How do you manage to grow faster than your markets?
Laurent Burelle: Yes, usually Plastic Omnium is growing faster than its market, mainly in the automotive industry. In 2012, again, we overpassed the worldwide growth thanks to the North American growth and to the Chinese growth. Those two countries have had a very impressive and robust growth in 2012. And we have reached in those two countries over 30% in turnover. And obviously, the results have followed.
EBM: What is your outlook for 2013?
Laurent Burelle: 2013, again, will be a growth year on a worldwide basis. On one side, we will have a decline in Europe’s production. France and Germany will be in big negative numbers. But we’ll have, again, Russia, US, China, India, and Brazil with a nice one- or two-digit growth in 2013. So globally, the growth will be softer in 2013, more around 1% or 2% on a worldwide basis, but as usual we’ll overthrow by 4% the worldwide growth. So we will grow less than in 2012, but we will grow again.
EBM: What is included in the €1.2 billion investment programme for the period 2013-2016 that you have announced? How will it change the Group?
Laurent Burelle: Plastic Omnium is a just-in-time sequencing delivery company of modules and parts to the automotive industry. So we need to be very close to the assembly lines. Our plants are quite full, and the growth in the next four years will be around 15 million units on a worldwide basis: mainly in the BRICs: in Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and in the US too. So if we want to keep and reach this growth, we have to add capacity on a worldwide basis. That is why we will invest €1.2 billion not only in capacity, one third of it will be in innovation, research and development.
EBM: Laurent Burelle, Chairman and CEO of Plastic Omnium, thank you very much.
Laurent Burelle: Thank you.
