The Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur made losses in the previous year. As the company announced, the operating result fell to minus 3.6 million euros and the overall result after taxes to minus 3.9 million euros. Compared to the previous year, turnover fell by four percent to 31.2 million euros. The company was "unable to build on the recent positive trend and the good result of the previous year in a challenging 2023 financial year".
Reticent buying and increased costs
The company cited significantly higher wage and energy costs as the reason for this, coupled with a noticeable national and international "reluctance to buy". The lack of customers from Russia and China in particular is causing problems for the producer of high-quality porcelain. "To date, there has only been a partial revival of the important Chinese tourism to Germany with a very restrictive German visa policy," it said.
Online trade declining
The company with the Crossed Swords trademark also announced that its e-commerce business was declining due to the reluctance to buy and the simultaneous opening of the retail trade following the coronavirus pandemic. "While our national and international retail partners largely took their orders, some of which had been in the pipeline for many years, during the coronavirus period, they are now struggling to sell off their stocks in a recessionary market environment and are only reordering slowly."
Meissen says it has responded to the developments with a series of measures. For example, it has invested in photovoltaics, streamlined its product range, made organizational adjustments and strengthened high-potential sales channels. With an improvement in the unfavourable external factors and a "consistent continuation of the course of modernization and rejuvenation of the brand", the company remains cautiously optimistic about the future.
It initially remained unclear what impact the development would have on the workforce at Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen.
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