Sales at the Finnish company Exel dropped 16.4 perent in 2008, ending up at €94.9 million. The operating loss was €400,000, down from a profit of €4.8 million for 2007, though this loss did include €7.8 million in non-recurring items. The board of directors has proposed that no dividend be paid out for the financial year.
For the fourth quarter, net sales were down by 21.4 percent to €22.1 million. The operating profit was €1.4 million, up from €700,000 in the fourth quarter 2007, which included negative €700,000 in nonrecurring items.
Exel made some changes to its structures in 2008. Its sports brands business was divided into outdoor and floorball, and outdoor was sold. Floorball had continued poor results and the company took measures to return it to profitability. However, it is focusing mainly on its core business, Exel Composites. It expects 2009 to continue to be bad, and plans more actions to controls debts and trim costs.
