LANDSBERG AM LECH (dpa-AFX) - Good business before the end of the year has given commercial kitchen supplier Rational 2022 another strong boost. After management had already raised its forecast in September, the company was able to reduce its high order backlog at the end of the year. This was helped by a full order book and the recently easing supply bottlenecks for electronic components. The preliminary annual figures exceeded management's forecast for sales and profits, Rational announced surprisingly on Thursday afternoon in Landsberg am Lech. The share, which is listed on the MDax, turned positive and left the trading session with a price gain of around five percent.

With an increase of almost one third compared to 2021, Rational turned over more than one billion euros last year - a new record. Management had expected growth of a maximum of 28 percent. At 290 million euros, the final quarter accounted for more than a quarter of annual sales.

Rational had faced a dilemma in recent months: After the pandemic, customers ordered more, but the company was unable to process the orders quickly due to a lack of parts. As a result, the order book had swelled to a record level in the meantime.

Rational has also gone through difficult times on the stock market. After a share price slump during the pandemic in response to business weakened by the lockdowns, the stock had recovered to a record high of almost 1034 euros in 2021. In 2022, however, supply bottlenecks in the wake of the Ukraine war and ever new corona lockdowns in China caused problems. With the closing price of 636 euros on Thursday, the share was now back at its highest level since the beginning of August.

In addition to the successively reduced order book, Rational also received a tailwind last year from currency effects and price increases. The American markets also developed particularly positively, with disproportionately high growth rates of almost 60 percent, it said. In Asia, Rational only reached the previous year's level - due to the difficult coronalage in China.

Of total sales, Rational said a record 235 million euros remained before interest and taxes (Ebit), almost half more than a year earlier. The operating margin was around 23 percent. This was also better than the 22.5 percent forecast in the best case scenario. Rational plans to present final figures on March 28./lew/stw/jha/