Hempel Achieves Record-Breaking Financial Results in 2023

In 2023, Hempel achieved historic organic revenue growth of 13.7% and revenue of €2,351 million, an increase of €192 million from 2022.

This growth was driven by strong performance across the business. In addition, Hempel’s adjusted EBITDA increased to €349 million in 2023, compared to €257 million in 2022. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 14.8%.

“Hempel delivered record-breaking results in 2023. We set ambitious targets and we surpassed our expectations,” said Michael Hansen, group president and CEO of Hempel A/S. “The strong results were thanks to a stellar performance across our business.”

In 2023, Hempel maintained focus on innovations to develop more sustainable solutions that meet its customers’ needs, enabling them to lower their CO2 footprint. This focus was reflected in growth across all four of Hempel’s customer segments, with Marine and Energy delivering double-digit organic revenue growth of 26.2% and 18.6%, respectively.

The Decorative segment maintained its position as Hempel’s largest customer segment in terms of revenue, delivering €792 million for the year. The Infrastructure customer segment expanded sales by 9.6%.

“At the heart of this growth expedition lies the synergy between Hempel’s highly skilled people and extensive global presence,” said Hansen.

The 2024 outlook is expected to be single-digit organic revenue growth and an EBITDA margin around 15%.

Increasing Value Creation and Impact

Hempel’s Double Impact strategy has proved robust and effective.

“In 2020, we launched Double Impact aiming to deliver innovative, sustainable solutions that create a significant positive impact for our customers and society at large. Initially, our strategy had one clear goal: doubling our revenue within five years. We are well on our way to deliver on this,” said Hansen.

Hempel’s new state-of-the-art Chinese factories in Yantai and Zhangjiagang are now up and running and are poised to accelerate growth in the years to come. This maximizes the positive impact that Hempel, its people and its owner, the Hempel Foundation, have on the world.

Turning Sustainability Ambition into Action

At Hempel, sustainability leadership means being frontrunners within the paint and coatings industry; working with material topics such as climate, biodiversity, resource depletion and diversity. Hempel’s sustainability framework, Futureproof, has been instrumental in driving this work.

In 2023, Hempel made significant progress towards delivering on its science-based targets and ESG commitments, decreasing its combined Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 51% compared to its 2019 baseline.

In May 2023, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) recognized Hempel’s efforts to engage its supply chain on climate issues, awarding Hempel an A in its 2022 Supplier Engagement Rating. Hempel was also awarded B by CDP for good environmental management in its 2023 environmental disclosure and scoring process.

“Putting sustainability at the heart of everything we do means we not only focus on lowering emissions from our operations and reducing the resources we use, but also continue to develop products and solutions that support our customers on their sustainability journeys. For example, our high-performance hull coatings helped customers in the maritime industry reduce their CO2e emissions by 6.5 million tons in 2023 alone. This is an improvement of 16% compared to 2022,” concluded Hansen.