Successful start to the year: With Q1 results, CEWE confirms its 2025 targets
 

• Group turnover rises by +4.8% to EUR 173.4 million in the first quarter of 2025
• Success story: CEWE PHOTO BOOK grows by +5.1% to 1.3 million copies sold
• Group EBIT of EUR 6.1 million is fully in line with expectations, confirming the annual target for 2025
• Innovative: CEWE Group wins six TIPA World Awards

Oldenburg, May 13, 2025. CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA (SDAX, ISIN: DE 0005403901) has made a successful start to the 2025 financial year. Group turnover rose by 4.8% to EUR 173.4 million in the first quarter of 2025, reaching a new high for the first quarter (Q1 2024: EUR 165.5 million). With growth of 5.1% and 1.3 million copies sold, CEWE PHOTOBOOK once again underlined its market-leading position in Europe. At EUR 6.1 million, Group EBIT was fully in line with expectations, confirming the target for 2025 (Group EBIT Q1 2024: EUR 7.9 million). The different public holiday pattern compared with the previous year had a reducing effect on the contribution margin in the Q1 result: In the previous year, Easter fell in the first quarter, whereas this year in the second. “The CEWE Group continues to perform strongly in a challenging economic environment. We have once again succeeded in inspiring our customers to capture their most personal memories and beautiful moments in high-quality, unique photo products. This is about trust – but also about new products and a better customer experience. We are therefore delighted that the CEWE Group's innovative strength has been recognized by the international jury of experts at the Technical Image Press Association and once again honored with – this year, in fact – six TIPA World Awards,” emphasized Thomas Mehls, CEO of CEWE Stiftung & Co. KGaA. With a successful first quarter, the company is clearly on track to achieve its annual targets: CEWE management forecasts group turnover of up to EUR 865 million and group EBIT of up to EUR 92 million for 2025.

Photofinishing business continues to grow in the first quarter

Photofinishing turnover rose by +5.3% to EUR 144.8 million in the first quarter of 2025 (Q1 2024: EUR 137.6 million), while photofinishing EBIT reached EUR 5.6 million, mainly due to the shift in public holidays described above and the fixed cost impact in the first quarter. (Q1 2024: EUR 7.5 million). Award-winning innovation: The CEWE Group won six TIPA World Awards at the beginning of the year, once again demonstrating the company's innovative strength. The CEWE PHOTOBOOK with panorama page was named 'Best Photobook', the CEWE Passport Photo App was awarded 'Best Professional Printing App', the CEWE Fineline Calendar was named 'Best Photo Service' and the CEWE Smart Layout concept from the photo editor was honored with 'Best Design & Technology'. The Pixum app received the award for 'Best Photobook App' and WhiteWall was honored with 'Best Photo Frame Design' for its 6mm-thin Basel frame. The award from the Technical Image Press Association is presented annually for innovative excellence in the photo industry.

Commercial Online-Print succeeds with best price guarantee

The Commercial Online-Print (COP) business segment continues to benefit from the cost efficiency achieved in production at SAXOPRINT and the resulting “best price guarantee” for its customers, increasing its Q1 turnover by +3.0% to EUR 21.9 million (Q1 2024: EUR 21.3 million). The turnover achieved brings Commercial Online-Print to an EBIT level on par with the previous year in a highly price-competitive environment: EUR 0.7 million (EBIT Q1 2024: EUR 0.7 million).

CEWE retail business remains well positioned 

Hardware retail achieved a slight increase in turnover in Q1, up 1.0% to EUR 6.7 million (Q1 2024: EUR 6.6 million). CEWE is deliberately refraining from less profitable trading business in the photo hardware segment (cameras and accessories) and continues to focus on retail as a sales channel for its Photofinishing products (reported in the Photofinishing segment). With EBIT of EUR -0.2 million, the retail business achieved a typical Q1 result with hardware (Q1 2024: EUR -0.1 million; change: EUR -44 thousand). Due to the seasonal nature of the business, hardware retail is traditionally slightly negative in the first quarter.

Traditionally solid equity ratio rises to 68.2%, ROCE at a strong 17.6%

The equity ratio rose again from the already very solid level of the previous year (March 31, 2024: 66.6%) to 68.2%, underscoring the CEWE Group's continued extremely stable position. The return on capital employed (ROCE) remained at a strong level of 17.6% at the end of March 2025 (ROCE March 31, 2024: 19.1%).

Outlook for 2025 confirmed with Q1 results

CEWE's management sees the results of the first quarter as confirmation of its targets and confirms its outlook for 2025: Group turnover is expected to increase by up to +4% in 2025 and is planned to be in the range of EUR 835 to 865 million. Group EBIT is expected to be in the range of EUR 84 to 92 million in 2025, EBT between EUR 83.5 and 91.5 million, and net income after taxes between EUR 58 and 63 million. CEWE's management is focusing on the upper half of the ranges for these targets, with the lower end of the ranges mainly reflecting external uncertainties that are beyond the company's control. 

An overview of results for Q1 2025

Rounding differences may occur. Exact values have always been used for percentage deviation calculations.

* Previous year's turnover and EBIT adjusted by €0.179 million due to the correction of a major customer invoice in COP; effect for the full year 2024 already taken into account in Q4 2024

Notes to the "Earnings by Business Segment" chart

(1) Photofinishing:  Production and sale of photo products such as the CEWE PHOTOBOOK, calendars, greeting cards, wall art and individual (analogue and digital) photos as well as other photo products

(2) Retailing: Trading in photo hardware, such as cameras and lenses, in Norway, Sweden, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia

(3) Commercial online printing: Production and sale of commercial print products in the online printing portals of SAXOPRINT, viaprinto and LASERLINE

(4) Other: Structural and corporate costs, as well as the results from real estate ownership and investments, are shown in the Other business segment.

Should you have any queries, please contact:
Axel Weber (VP, Head of Investor Relations)
E-Mail: IR@cewe.de

Internet:  cewe-group.com , cewe.de , pixum.de , deindesign.de , whitewall.com , cheerz.com , saxoprint.de, viaprinto.de , laser-line.de

Financial schedule

(insofar as already scheduled)

04.06.2025 CEWE Annual General Meeting 2025, Weser-Ems-Halle Oldenburg

12.06.2025 Warburg Highlights Conference, Hamburg

14.08.2025 Publication of H1 2025 Interim Report

27.08.2025 Montega Conference HIT, Hamburg

23.09.2025 Berenberg & Goldman Sachs German Corporate Conference 2025, Munich

24.09.2025 Baader Investment Conference 2025, Munich

13.11.2025 Publication Q3 2025 Interim Statement

24.11.2025 Deutsches Eigenkapitalforum 2025, Frankfurt

About CEWE:

The CEWE Group is Europe's leading photo service and online printing supplier.

From its beginnings in 1912, CEWE has progressed to become the leading photo service company for all those wanting to make more of their photos. This is mainly due to the much-awarded CEWE PHOTOBOOK, with about six million books being sold each year. Customers can purchase other personalised photo products under the brand names of CEWE, Cheerz, DeinDesign, Pixum and WhiteWall – and from many leading retailers in Europe. They are inspired to produce a variety of creative designs from their personal photos in these brand environments, entrusting the company with more than 2 billion photos every year.

The CEWE Group has also set up a highly efficient production system for advertising prints and business prints for the online printing market. Every year billions of high-quality printed products are delivered reliably to their purchasers through the SAXOPRINT, LASERLINE and viaprinto sales platforms.

The CEWE Group, through the founder family of Neumüller as an anchor shareholder, focuses on sustainable corporate management and has already received many awards for this effort:  economically sustainable in the long term; cooperative and fair in dealings with customers, employees and suppliers; socially responsible and protective of the environment and resources.

The CEWE Group has a staff of 4,000 employees and operates in 21 countries. CEWE is listed on the SDAX. More information is available at www.cewe-group.com.