TAKKT’s Organic Sales Fall 4.3% in Q3 as 2026 Outlook Risks Grow
Key Facts
TAKKT AG reported a 4.3% decline in organic sales in the third quarter of 2026, a performance the company said was close to the fall recorded in the previous quarter. Group sales reached €231.8 million, compared with €244.5 million in the third quarter of 2025, a reported decline of 5.2%. In the first nine months of the year, sales totaled €685.6 million, against €736.3 million a year earlier, down 6.9%. The company said organic sales declined 5.1% from January to September after excluding currency effects and portfolio changes. The results distinguish the sales weakness that preceded the cyberattack from the operational impact the company expects in the fourth quarter, as the attack occurred after the reporting period ended.
The decline varied across the group’s segments in the third quarter: organic sales fell 3.4% in Industry & Packaging and 4.6% in Office Furniture & Displays, while Foodservice recorded the largest drop, at 6.3%. TAKKT said the cyberattack targeting it after the reporting period mainly affected the Industry & Packaging segment in Europe and the Foodservice segment in North America. The company said it contained the attack and began restoring the affected systems, but operations had not returned to full capacity. It added that key operating processes were gradually resuming, while order processing, delivery and invoicing remained limited. The continuation of these constraints is expected to affect business execution in the fourth quarter, an impact the company linked to the attack, rather than to the sales decline recorded in the third quarter.
At the earnings level, the group recorded EBITDA of €14.5 million in the first nine months of 2026, compared with €27.3 million in the same period a year earlier. The figures included one-off expenses of €7.3 million, against €4.2 million a year earlier. The company said its gross margin remained resilient, at 39.2% after nine months, up from 39.0% in the same period of 2025. It attributed cost pressures to higher freight costs, particularly in Europe, alongside rising energy prices. TAKKT also reduced its cost base by around €9 million, which it said offset much of the negative impact of lower sales on earnings. Foodservice, however, absorbed a non-cash impairment charge of around €19 million in the third quarter, weighing on operating profit before interest and taxes.
Pressure also extended to cash flows, with free cash flow at negative €12.7 million in the first nine months of 2026, compared with negative €1.7 million in the same period last year. The company said the cyberattack would have a clear impact on fourth-quarter sales, earnings and cash flows. It added that the risks had increased the likelihood that organic sales growth and adjusted EBITDA margin would end up at the lower end of the annual forecast ranges, or below them. The company maintained guidance for an organic sales decline of 7% to growth of 3%, and an adjusted EBITDA margin of between 2% and 5%. The recovery of order processing, delivery and invoicing will directly determine the attack’s impact on year-end results, alongside pressures already evident in sales and cash flow.
In July, TAKKT described organic sales in the second quarter as having fallen 4.1%, while orders in the Industry & Packaging segment in most European countries exceeded year-earlier levels during that quarter. In its third-quarter 2025 statement, the chief executive said customers “remain hesitant due to economic uncertainty,” pointing to their caution amid economic uncertainty. He also said in the first-quarter 2026 report that many customers were postponing major project investments because of geopolitical and economic uncertainty. Those remarks provide context for the weak demand that preceded the attack, while third-quarter data showed an organic decline close to that of the previous quarter. The company is scheduled to publish and present preliminary figures for fiscal 2026 on February 25, 2027.