newsonline24

• Krones today published its 2025 Annual Report and confirmed the preliminary figures.
• At the Annual General Meeting on 9 June 2026, the Executive Board and Supervisory Board will propose a dividend of €2.80 per share for the successful 2025 financial year – an increase of €0.20 per share compared to the previous year.
• The Executive Board is realistically optimistic for the 2026 financial year and forecasts 3% to 5% growth in revenue adjusted for currency translation effects. The EBITDA margin is expected to improve further to between 10.7% and 11.1%. For the third financial performance target, ROCE, Krones expects between 19% and 20%.
• Krones remains firmly committed to the 2040 net zero emissions target.

Krones today published its 2025 Annual Report. The company has continued its stable and profitable growth path despite the macroeconomic uncertainties. The key to continued future success is innovative products and services, enabling Krones to meet customer needs and requirements as effectively as possible. Reflecting this, the title of the 2025 Annual Report is “Success factor innovation”. The Annual Report also contains the company’s non-financial statement as a part of the combined management report.

Revenue increased by 7.0% in 2025 to €5,663.8 million – order intake of €5,564.7 million exceeds previous year’s high level

As the world’s leading supplier, Krones benefited in 2025 from the fact that the market for filling and packaging technology is less cyclical. The extensive product and service portfolio, as well as the internationally diversified customer base, also supported Krones’ growth. Revenue increased by 7.0%, from €5,293.6 million in the previous year to €5,663.8 million. Krones thus achieved the growth forecast of 7% to 9% for 2025, despite negative currency translation effects.

The stable state of Krones’ customer industries is also reflected in the positive development in order intake. At €5,564.7 million in 2025, order intake exceeded the previous year’s already high level (€5,460.7 million) by 1.9% – with continued adherence to the disciplined pricing strategy. As expected, the book-to-bill ratio – the ratio of order intake to revenue – was close to 1, at 0.98 in 2025.

At the end of December 2025, Krones had orders on hand totalling €4,190.4 million (31 December 2024: €4,289.5 million). The solid order backlog ensures production capacity utilisation in the lines and project business well into the third quarter of 2026.

Krones’s profitability grows as forecast – EBITDA margin increased significantly in 2025 from 10.1% to 10.6%

Krones further increased profitability in 2025. This was due to a significant extent to efficiency gains in production and implementation of strategic measures to improve performance and the company’s cost structures.

In the full year 2025, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by more than revenue, increasing 12.2% from €537.1 million to €602.3 million. Krones significantly improved the EBITDA margin to 10.6% (previous year: 10.1%). The company thus achieved its margin target of 10.2% to 10.8% for 2025. Krones generated an EBITDA margin of 11.0% in the fourth quarter of 2025 (prior-year quarter: 10.3%).

Earnings before taxes (EBT) increased in 2025 by 11.1% from €381.6 million in the previous year to €424.1 million. The EBT margin consequently improved from 7.2% to 7.5%. The increase in consolidated net income by 7.9% to €299.2 million (previous year: €277.2 million) results in earnings per share of €9.45 for 2025 (previous year: €8.77).

Krones generates high free cash flow and strengthens net cash

Krones generated high cash flows in 2025. From January to December 2025, free cash flow improved by €134.5 million to €247.7 million (previous year: €113.2 million). Krones spent a total of €35.2 million on M&A activities in 2025 (previous year: €179.3 million). Free cash flow before M&A activities consequently amounted to €282.9 million, nearly matching the previous year’s very high level of €292.5 million. Return on capital employed (ROCE) increased substantially from 18.2% to 19.1% in 2025. The ROCE target for the reporting year was 18% to 20%.

Due to the high cash inflow, net cash – cash and cash equivalents less bank debt – increased to €548.2 million at the end of December 2025 (previous year: €439.9 million). Krones’ financial and capital structure remains very solid and stable overall. The equity ratio rose to 42.2% in 2025 (previous year: 40.5%).

With the above figures, Krones has confirmed the preliminary figures published on 19 February 2026.

Continued firm commitment to 2040 net zero emissions target

Krones prepared the non-financial statement (NFS) – part of the combined management report – for the first time in full compliance with the requirements of the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). This is provided on a voluntary basis as the German legislation implementing the CSRD is still pending. Krones thus sets an example with its sustainability reporting in terms of transparency and accountability in business conduct.

Already in 2024, the Group adopted the strategic goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions along the entire value chain to net zero by 2040. Specific interim targets are set for 2030. These provide for an 80% reduction in operational greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1 and 2) and a 30% reduction in upstream and downstream value chain emissions (Scope 3) relative to the 2019 base year.

Despite the increased volume of business, Scope 1 and 2 emission reductions in 2025 were maintained at the previous year’s already high level (with a reduction of 52% relative to 2019). For Scope 3 in 2025, Krones recorded savings of -8% compared to the 2019 base year, together with increased demand for economically sustainable products. Where Krones machines are available in standard and energy and media-efficient enviro versions, nearly 80% of customers opted for the enviro version.

Dividend per share to rise from €2.60 to €2.80

Krones’ long-term dividend policy is to distribute 25% to 30% of consolidated net income to shareholders, although in recent years it has aimed for the upper end of this range. For the successful 2025 financial year, the Executive Board and Supervisory Board will propose a dividend of €2.80 per share at the Annual General Meeting on 9 June 2026. This represents an increase of €0.20 per share or 7.7% compared to the previous year (€2.60 per share) and corresponds to 29.6% of consolidated net income.

Executive Board forecasts profitable growth in 2026

Krones made a good start to the 2026 financial year. As the current situation in the Middle East shows, however, the company once again faces numerous challenges this year. It is impossible to predict the impact that the conflict in Iran will have on the economy in the Middle East and the global economy. Despite these and other uncertainties, such as global tariff policies, Krones remains realistically optimistic at the present time for 2026 as a whole.

Based on the prevailing macroeconomic outlook and the current expected development of the markets relevant to Krones, the company expects consolidated revenue growth, adjusted for currency translation effects, of 3% to 5% in 2026.

On the basis of increasing operating revenue, an ongoing disciplined price strategy and continued implementation of the cost optimisation measures, Krones aims to improve profitability again this year compared to 2025. At group level for 2026, the company forecasts an EBITDA margin of 10.7% to 11.1%. For the third financial performance target ROCE, Krones expects 19% to 20% in the current year.

Krones has published the Annual Report 2025 online at:
https://www.krones.com/media/downloads/GB_2025_Konzern_e.pdf