The moulding machine manufacturer says 2005 was a ‘difficult’ year

Netstal has blamed a slump in demand for CD and DVD production machines for a fall in its 2005 sales, it announced today. The Swiss company’s 2005 sales were SFr317.1m (E204m), down from SFr357.8m in 2004. But net profit rose around 3% to SFr25.1m.

The “volatile” optical data carrier market dropped to half of the prior year, it said, with reduced demand for its e-Jet and Discjet systems most evident among once-only recordable CD and DVDs, and geographically in Asia. European deliveries of PET production systems were down, but deliveries to Asia and North and South America increased. Netstal said a trend towards systems with larger numbers of cavities meant the number of delivered systems was down slightly compared with 2004.

The all electric Elion contributed to sales for the first time in 2005 and “led to a welcome increase of orders from the medical and pharmaceutical industries”. Sales in North and South America showed a “clearly positive development” for the first time in three years, the company said. Asian business decreased slightly to 16%.