Fluidra's sales increase by 0.8% and its operating income by 2.9%

Fluidra, the Spanish listed multinational group devoted to developing applications for
the sustainable use of water, released its results today for the 2012 business year.
Fluidra ended the year with sales figures of 628.8 million euros, an 0.8% increase in
growth on the previous year, despite the fall in figures recorded in Spain and the rest
of the South of Europe. This was largely thanks to the excellent work done on
internationalisation outside of Europe that Fluidra has been concentrating on over the
past three years. The strong growth of 26.6% in Asia and Australia should be also
highlighted, which is due to the recent addition of the new fluid handling business,
Fluidra Youli, in China. Fluidra's process of internationalisation is an undeniable
fact: in 2012 80% of its sales were made outside of Spain, in contrast to 77% in
2011, whilst sales outside of Europe increased by 31% in 2012.
Insofar as the performance of its business units are concerned, the Pool unit did
particularly well by maintaining almost the same level of sales as in the previous year
with a figure of 426.9 million euros, despite the drop in sales of commercial pools in
the South of Europe. The performance of the Fluid Handling unit should also be
highlighted, whose significant increase of 19.6% partly reflects the positive effect that
the addition of Fluidra Youli in China has had on the business.
All of the divisions, except the South of Europe, contributed to the increase in gross
operating income from 70.2 to 72.2 million euros (+2.9%). Net profits reached 14.5
million euros, in contrast to 15.1 million euros in 2011, due to expenses for the
restructuring process in the South Europe area.

In a statement, Eloi Planes, Fluidra's CEO, explained that “The duality of the world's
current economy means that we have to adapt our structures to markets
experiencing a downturn, whilst at the same time invest in growing markets. Our
results reflect the expenses related to this adaptation that we are making worldwide
in order to fall in line with the different realities of our markets. The operating results
show improved returns, which are the result of this huge undertaking."
Over and above the figures, in 2012 Fluidra made great progress in
internationalisation and diversification. Fluidra has added five new countries to the list
of countries in which it has subsidiaries (Indonesia, Jordan, Romania, Montenegro
and Colombia). Another milestone to be highlighted was the joint venture with Youli
in China, which is a great step forward in its growth strategy there and in Asia as a
whole. The third major breakthrough was the good progress made in turnkey
wellness projects, such as the first international water park in Thailand, the Cartoon
Network Amazone.
Along the same lines, the news broke out this week that Fluidra had further
secured its position in Brazil with the purchase of a local company in the pool
sector. By acquiring Veico, Fluidra is to create its own manufacturing structure to
make headway in a region experiencing strong growth.
By way of summary, Mr Planes concluded that "our performance in 2012 proves
that we were right to adopt a strategy based on internationalisation,
diversification, innovation and efficiency. Fluidra is a solid group with great
future prospects"