Bad first quarter for Philips, Drachten shavers do just fine

The production of anti-sleep apnea device causes Philips headache. The DreamStation contains foam that can crumble due to high humidity and high temperatures. As a precaution, the group has set aside 250 million euros to solve the problems.

A spokesman said: “We have sold millions of these devices, especially in the United States and we want to fix that.” This decline contributed to a net loss of 34 million euros in the first quarter of this year.

The home appliances portion, which was sold to Chinese investor Hillhouse Capital, was not included in the quarterly numbers for the first time. Without this split, Philips saw a 9 percent increase in sales.

Personal health

Sales reached 3.8 billion euros in the months from January to March. A year ago, that was just under € 3.7 billion. The Diagnostics and Treatment departments, which manufacture MRI and ultrasound machines, and personal health, among others, have performed particularly well.

At Personal Health, which was less active during the Corona crisis, the recovery was already evident in the previous quarter. This has now continued with revenue growth of 17 percent. Personal care products like razors in particular did well there.

Earlier this month, Drachten produced the 100 millionth blade from OneBlade, a shaver that has 27 million users worldwide. Connected Care grew at the slowest pace and saw new orders drop by more than a quarter. This relates to the demand for respiratory equipment a year before the outbreak of the Corona pandemic.

Uncertain

Phillips continues to stress that the outlook is uncertain due to the ongoing Corona pandemic. The company is seeing an increase in demand for products from the Diagnostics, Therapy and Personal Health departments.

Philips now sees similar growth in store sales of 6 percent for the full year of 2021. Previously, the company assumed a maximum growth of around 3 percent.