First-quarter 2020 sales

Commenting on these figures, Guy Sidos, the Group’s Chairman and CEO, said: “The Group’s performance over the first quarter of 2020 was solid despite a sharp slowdown at the end of the period in France, India and Italy.

Faced with the sanitary crisis, the Group demonstrated its flexibility and responsiveness by putting in place from the outset protective measures for our colleagues, our clients and our suppliers of the crisis and introducing strong measures to cut costs, increase control of our working capital requirements and reduce our investments in line with the situation.

Industrial and commercial activity was maintained on almost all sites, in line with market evolutions, and this has attenuated the impact of the crisis.  

Nevertheless, visibility remains particularly low for the rest of the year, and a significative impact on first-half results and ratios is to be expected from this exceptional situation.”