Professional-kitchen specialist Rational continued on its successful growth path in the third quarter. Sales revenues rose by 10 percent to 143.0 million euros in the quarter (previous year: 129.5 million euros). Sales revenues for the nine-month period were up 14 percent on the previous year, at 403.5 million euros (previous year: 352.7 million euros), after exchange rate adjustments, the increase is 11 percent.

A particularly large contribution to growth came from the Americas region, where sales revenues expanded by 39 percent. In addition to good business performance in general, this was also due to positive currency effects. After exchange rate adjustments, the increase comes to 25 percent.

Sales growth in the well-developed German market was particularly encouraging. Driven by the positive performance of the field business, sales revenues rose by 13 percent here. Rest of Europe expanded by 6 percent in the first nine months. The main reasons for rather below-average growth are the comparatively poor business performance in Russia and the particularly strong prior-year quarter, during which many school kitchens in the UK were equipped with RATIONAL appliances.

In Asia, sales revenues increased by 24 percent year-on-year in the first nine months. One of the main contributing factors was the positive business performance in China. Sales revenues in the “Rest of the world” region also grew by 12 percent year-on-year in the nine-month period.

The Rational segment increased its sales revenues by 14 percent in the first nine months. The FRIMA segment also performed in line with our expectations, generating growth of 14 percent. FRIMA’s year-on-year increase in sales revenue was particularly strong in the third quarter, at 19 percent.