Barco has announced the results for the first quarter ended 31 March 2022, with sales for Q1 up 20% against Q1 last year.
Orders for Q1 2022 of €246.9 million represented a rise of 8% vs Q1 2021, the order book per 31 March 2022 stood at €530.4m, €179m (51%) above last year and €44 million (9%) above end of December 2021.
Continued demand recovery drove order growth, fueled by strong uptakes in the Meeting Experience business unit, due to positive back-to-office dynamics in both EMEA and the Americas, and in the Immersive Experience business unit. All regions contributed to the growth except for the APAC region in part due to the impact of lockdowns in China.
Driven by positive book-to-bill performances in all divisions, for the fourth consecutive quarter, orderbook grew solidly to a new record level of €530m, an increase of €44m compared to year-end 2021 with the most solid uptakes in Entertainment.
Double-digit sales growth reflected primarily deliveries on a strong orderbook for the Immersive Experience and Surgical and Modality business units. While sales were higher year-over-year in all divisions, component shortages continued to cause delays in converting orders to sales (impact 25 million euro, mainly Entertainment).
Co-CEO's, An Steegen & Charles Beauduin (pictured above) said in a statement; “We are pleased to have started 2022 with a solid first quarter performance as demand continues to rebound across all end markets. As demand recovers, we believe we are well positioned to capture the growth opportunities across our markets. That said, we recognise that supply chain constraints may still hamper the pace of orders to sales conversion and our margin recovery. We are however confident that the hard work and commitment in further mitigating this impact as we experience it day in, day out across our organisation will gradually deliver tangible results.”