Bureau Veritas 2019 ‘excellent’ full year results

February 27, 2020

IIOA member Bureau Veritas has published its full year results for 2019.

Organic revenue grew at 4.3% for the whole of 2019, with increasing growth in Q4 to 5.3%, compared to 4% in the previous three quarters.

Overall, revenue rose by 5.5% (constant currency) to 5099.7m EUR.

Five of the six Bureau Veritas business units reported growth; Certification was the only unit with negative growth, declining by 1.5%, ‘as expected, a reflection of a transitional year post-revision of standards, cushioned by a return to strong growth in the last quarter.’ However, in Q4 the Certification unit saw stronger growth of 6.7%, ‘benefiting from strong momentum on new schemes and the development of the business following the revision of standards period.’

On the Certification performance, Bureau Veritas note, ‘As expected QHSE and Transportation Certification markets declined significantly as a result of the absence of transition man-days in the first nine months of the year. This mainly impacted the countries which are highly dependent on QHSE and Transportation standards, namely Germany, the US, Canada, Brazil and Japan.

Growth was strong elsewhere supported by new products which address the overall rising customer demand for brand protection and traceability all along the supply chain. In 2019, the Group achieved high double-digit growth in Health & Safety Management (with the new ISO 45001 standard), Social & Customized audits (on both clients’ supply and operations sides), Sustainability and Corporate Social responsibility audits. In particular, the GreenHouseGas and CO₂ Emissions business delivered stellar growth this year.’

As regards the 2020 Certification outlook, ‘the Certification business is expected to deliver solid organic revenue growth, led by Sustainability & CSR, Food schemes and specialized standards related to Risk Management, Cybersecurity and Medical Device, as well as new products development overall.’

Full details from Bureau Veritas can be seen here