North Brabant, the Netherlands-based Ebusco, a company known for developing electric buses and energy solutions, announced an update on Tuesday stating that its previous forecast of revenue exceeding €325M and a positive EBITDA in 2024 is no longer achievable.
The announcement comes after evaluating the results for the first few months of 2024 and the operational planning for the remainder of the year.
It’s worth mentioning that the Dutch company’s share price has dipped almost 55 per cent year to date, from €4.67 to €2.07 ( €-2.60).
At the time of writing this article, the Dutch company trades at €2.07 per share, with 8 per cent drop.
Founded by Peter Bijvelds, Ebusco is dedicated to developing, producing, and bringing to market fully electric city and regional buses and the associated ecosystem.
Strategic shift proves to be right
The company’s decision to work with contract manufacturers has resulted in a faster assembly process.
The company’s update states that the number of buses delivered this year has increased to 90, compared to 66 in the first half of 2023, and this number is expected to grow in the second half of the year.
The Ebusco 3.0 buses in use continue to show superior energy efficiency. This strong performance and market demand allow Ebusco to plan its production well into 2025.
Ebusco: New organisational structure
Earlier this year, Ebusco implemented a new organisational structure, leading to clearer roles and responsibilities.
Following the appointment by the Annual General Meeting in May, Roald Dogge started as COO on 1 June 2024.
Michiel Peters has already started his onboarding at Ebusco in preparation for his role as co-CEO and Chairman of the Executive Team.
The CTO and CHRO roles have been filled with internal candidates, says the company.
Even though the company is beginning to see positive results from the management actions taken, the transition of the assembly process and logistical flows to contract manufacturers has faced some initial inefficiencies.
The company clarifies in the update that these inefficiencies have caused a delay in production compared to the original plan and are expected to take the rest of 2024 to resolve.
Prioritising customer orders
Additionally, the in-house production facility in Deurne continues to experience inefficiencies, which has slowed down the finalisation of buses.
“Besides having an impact on revenue, this also has an impact on the cost reduction program, which could not be executed in full yet. The catch-up effect in the second half of this year will not be enough to compensate for the lower-than-expected savings in the first half of 2024,” says the company.
To counter this, the Dutch company has decided to prioritise customer orders currently on assembly lines and in the Pre-Delivery Inspection (PDI) to focus on the maximum speed of delivery of buses that are close to completion.
Furthermore, the Executive Team is in the process of identifying additional cost savings in addition to the initiated plans.
Headed by Michiel Peters, a start has been made on refining the medium—and long-term strategy, which will be presented during the Capital Markets Day in November 2024.
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