Leifheit has weathered the recent turbulence on the stock markets well. At around 19 euros, the household products manufacturer's share price is even slightly above the level it was at before US President Donald Trump's first tariffs announcement, which marked the beginning of the strong fluctuations on the stock markets.

Leifheit shares are currently benefiting from the high proportion of turnover generated in Europe (89%) and the fact that the majority of production sites are located in Europe. Procurement has also been increasingly focused on European sources in the past, says CEO Alexander Reindler in an interview with Börsen-Zeitung. The US business only accounts for 2% of group turnover. As a result, the company is hardly directly affected by the implementation of the high US import tariffs that have been announced. „We have a high level of resilience to external shocks," he says. However, Reindler admits that the high level of uncertainty among consumers is leading to a reluctance to buy. This was already evident – for other reasons – in the final quarter of 2024 and the first few months of the current year.

Leifheit manufactures products such as rotary dryers, upright dryers, ironing boards, vacuum cleaners and floor cleaners, window cleaners and steam cleaners, as well as kitchen and bathroom scales. The company is exposed to constantly increasing competitive pressure from cheaper offerings from no-name and private labels as well as suppliers from the Far East, such as China. Nevertheless, the first annual results for which Reindler is responsible as CEO of Leifheit show remarkable progress on the earnings side.

Operating profit (earnings before interest and taxes, Ebit) doubled to 12.1 million euros in 2024 compared to the previous year. As sales remained almost unchanged at 259 million euros, the margin rose from 2.3% to 4.7%. And that is by no means the end of the story: „In the medium term, we see the potential to achieve average annual sales growth of 3 to 6% and an Ebit margin of 7 to 10% with our strategic measures,“ says Reindler. „In the long term, beyond 2030, we want to increase our sales to more than 300 million euros and the Ebit margin to over 10%. I believe this is feasible.“

Reindler intends to achieve this by specialising in the segments that have already grown strongly by 4.1% per annum over the past ten years: Mechanical cleaning and laundry drying, which together account for around two-thirds of turnover. „There are also niches within these segments that can be expanded and thus grow.“ Stronger international business in Europe – 40% of revenue is generated in Germany – is also expected to generate more turnover. To this end, the Leifheit brand and the e-commerce business are to be strengthened.

Finally, the plan is to bring more innovations to the market, which should also lead to more sales. Reindler held out the prospect of a new product for surface cleaning – „a really big market segment“ – for the middle of the year, following the „launch“ of a window cleaner at the beginning of the year.

Reindler is dissatisfied with the development of the Soehnle brand, which represents the much smaller Wellbeing segment compared to the large Household segment (cleaning and drying). „We never quite succeeded in establishing the Soehnle brand beyond the scales segment.", he says. The attempt to expand with air purifiers under the Soehnle brand ended in 2024. This was the reason for the decline in turnover by a tenth to 14.7 million euros in this segment. „We are still certain that the Soehnle brand has a lot of potential, but we will now focus on the core products of bathroom and kitchen scales as well as growth in other European countries", he explains.

In the private label segment, which represents the business of the two French subsidiaries Birambeau and Herby, most of whose revenues are also generated in France, turnover rose by 3.3% to 31 million euros in 2024. The growth is exclusively attributable to Birambeau, said Reindler. He added that the Leifheit brand business in France would benefit from synergies thanks to the private label business there.

The main drivers for the positive earnings development in the past year were the focus on high-margin products and efficiency improvements in production. For example, a change in production organisation from assembly to the placement of end consumer packaging on the pallet meant that warehousing for the individual production stages was no longer necessary. Overall, this led to an increase in the gross margin to 44.5% (previous year: 42.1%), which was achieved without the tailwind of price increases, as „we have kept our prices constant,“ emphasises Reindler.

In contrast, one-off effects from organisational adjustments in sales and marketing impacted earnings. „Otherwise, costs remained comparatively stable in 2024,“ says Reindler, who, however, cannot rule out cost increases for 2025. However, a negative one-off effect from 2023 – the costs of around 2 million euros for the early departure of Reindler's predecessor Henner Rinsche – had a positive impact on earnings in 2024. For this year, Leifheit is aiming for growth of between 2% and 4% and Ebit of between 15 million euros and 17 million euros. „In view of the general conditions, we have set ourselves ambitious targets for 2025,“ says Reindler. However, he is confident that he will be able to further increase the gross margin.

According to Reindler, Leifheit aims to „become the European market leader for mechanical cleaning and drying after 2030“. The CEO does not want to say who currently holds this title, but Vileda – the brand belongs to the Freudenberg Group in Weinheim – is probably ahead.

According to Reindler, the most positive aspect of the coalition agreement negotiated between the CDU/CSU and SPD – „I am glad that it was finalised so relatively quickly“ – is the reduction in bureaucracy, if it is implemented. „That could really benefit us as a company," he says. Too many resources are tied up in bureaucracy, especially for SMEs.

„We are pushing for shareholder-oriented capital allocation,“ says Reindler. „We have high liquidity, a high equity ratio and no bank debt. We want to utilise this more than before for three elements: Firstly for investments in our production to generate growth and innovation, secondly for the distribution of attractive dividends, and thirdly for share buybacks.“

As of December 31, 2024, liquidity stood at 41.4 million euros (41.3 million euros) and the equity ratio at 48.2% (51.0%). As in previous years, Leifheit had no liabilities to banks. The dividend policy generally provides for the distribution of approximately 75% of the net profit for the period or free cash flow (14.2 million euros after 12.1 million euros) as a dividend. Furthermore, shareholders will participate in the Group's strong liquidity position through a special dividend. For 2024, a proposal will be made to the Annual General Meeting to pay a base dividend of 1.15 euros (0.95 euros) per share and a special dividend of 0.05 euros (0.10 euros) per share. A share buyback program was also initiated last year.

According to the company, Leifheit's long-standing major shareholders are MKV Verwaltungs GmbH of Grünwald near Munich, with 10.03% of the shares – according to previous information, MKV belongs to Manuel Knapp-Voith – and Ruthild Loh of Haiger (Central Hesse), with 8.26%. The company itself holds 8.17%, leaving a free float of 73.5%.