Shareholder Letter
Dear Shareholders,
2024/25 was a strong year for dormakaba, characterized by good organic growth and sustained margin expansion. We advanced our market position by consistently leveraging our core strengths — cutting-edge innovation and strong customer engagement — while continuously improving operational excellence. These achievements reflect the disciplined execution of our strategic initiatives.
Our commitment to customer-focused innovation continues to drive market recognition and business momentum. At BAU in Munich and ISC West in Las Vegas — two of the industry’s leading trade shows — we showcased a broad range of innovative solutions. At BAU, we launched our Automated Personnel Screening solution, developed in collaboration with Rohde & Schwarz, while at ISC we unveiled our new hotel lock Quantum pixel+ paired with an Apple Wallet digital key solution for hospitality access. At both shows, we introduced new features for our EntriWorX planning ecosystem. Launched in late 2022 and rolled out in 29 countries since, the tool has nearly doubled its adoption rate in the past year. Throughout the year, our offering earned multiple prestigious awards in Europe and North America, underscoring our leadership in engineering and technology.
Performance: on track to deliver mid-term targets
dormakaba posted good growth and profitability gains for the 2024/25 financial year against a strong prior-year basis. We are on track to deliver our mid-term targets — notably, we achieved our target of >30% ROCE one year early. While the economic environment was challenging in light of tariffs and geopolitical tensions, the trading environment remained overall robust. Net organic sales growth was 4.1%, driven by both stronger volume (2.4%) and pricing (1.7%). The adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 80 basis points versus prior year to 15.5%. This marks the sixth consecutive semester of margin improvement, underscoring our strong position in key markets and verticals, the effectiveness of our transformation program, and the value of our innovative products and solutions. Most of all, it is a testament to the winning spirit and hard work of the global dormakaba team.
We have further strengthened our financial position. We successfully placed a five-year bond of CHF 200 million and reduced our net debt by 21.2%, resulting in an improvement of our leverage ratio to 0.8x (net debt/adj. EBITDA). Free cash flow including restructuring expenses paid amounted to CHF 176.9 million. We will include the adjusted operating cash flow margin among our targets to reflect a strong focus on cash generation.
We experienced above-market volume growth in our core Access Solutions markets and in our Key & Wall Solutions and OEM segment, with high single-digit performances in Germany and UK/Ireland and solid growth in North America. Growth was driven by business development across key verticals, enabled by our strategic focus on these areas in both R&D and the go-to-market. We successfully completed over 80 airport projects worldwide and expanded our production capacity in India to meet rising regional demand. In the hospitality vertical, we secured major supply contracts with Premier Inn and Travelodge, two of the largest chains in the UK, thereby capitalizing on growth opportunities beyond our well-established North American business. The healthcare vertical also had a strong year, with numerous prestigious projects secured around the world.
Executing with impact: a year of strategic progress
The 2024/25 financial year was marked by successful strategy execution. We see continued momentum as we execute our strategy’s current phase, “From Shape to Growth,” with its three key value drivers: Elevate Performance, Reduce Complexity, and Innovate & Grow.
Our transformation program continues to deliver tangible results, generating annual savings of CHF 148 million since program launch and driving consistent margin improvements. Our three shared services centers are scaling steadily and operating efficiently — clear evidence that our efforts to standardize global processes and enhance efficiency are yielding strong returns. Additionally, we have successfully launched our commercial transformation initiative, targeting an additional CHF 40 million in savings by 2027/28. The first affected markets are already undergoing transition, marking a solid start to this initiative.
We have taken significant steps to reduce complexity in our operations, including four divestments. Furthermore, we are streamlining our hardware and software portfolio to drive efficiency and scalability. Our new generation of terminals already exemplifies this shift — built on a modular platform with standardized components such as processors and memory, significantly reducing the number of electronics and firmware variants. We will apply the same approach to optimize our door closer range with a modular offering, which will deliver additional efficiencies in the supply chain.
Our effective strategic execution has allowed us to shift gears toward growth even more. We have launched our North America Growth Plan to strengthen our market position and improve commercial productivity, and we also stepped up our M&A activities in the second half of the financial year. We closed four bolt-on transactions, including the acquisition of German-based TANlock on 1 July 2025, which strengthens our offering for data centers, a key growth vertical for dormakaba.
Advancing ESG: achieving targets, delivering impact
We continue to make good progress toward our sustainability goals, particularly in reducing our carbon emissions, reducing landfill waste to zero, and establishing a workplace safety culture. This financial year, our focus has been on setting up further data collection points and establishing the necessary processes and audits to ensure that we comply with the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) when it becomes effective.
We are delighted that, for the second year in a row, we have been named by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s Climate Leaders. In addition, we have received the University of St. Gallen’s HSG Impact Award for our study on traceability of cobalt, which resulted in a partnership with Save the Children to address child labor in the cobalt supply chains. We are also pleased to retain our Prime designation, with a rise to B- rating, from Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) — a key indicator of suitability for responsible investment.
Continued focus on good governance
As part of our commitment to good corporate governance, we will propose Ernst & Young (Switzerland) as the new auditor for the company accounts to the 2025 General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM). All members of the Board of Directors will stand for reelection.
dormakaba is committed to attractive shareholder remuneration. Our new dividend policy aims to maintain or increase the dividend per share annually and reflects our focus on delivering consistent shareholder returns while preserving the financial flexibility needed for long-term growth and value creation. The Board of Directors will propose a dividend of CHF 9.20 to the AGM. Additionally, to make dormakaba stock ownership more accessible to investors and employees, a share split of 1-to-10 will be proposed to the AGM.
Outlook
For the financial year 2025/26, dormakaba expects a robust trading environment in the context of continued global uncertainties surrounding geopolitical tensions and trade tariffs. Lower interest rates in Europe, regulatory changes, the infrastructure package in Germany, as well as increased investment activities in the US should underpin opportunities for growth.
Supported by a strong order book and new, innovative products, dormakaba is confident that it will continue growing organically. The company will rigorously execute its strategy and transformation, leveraging shared services and boosting operational efficiency. In addition, dormakaba will advance with its commercial transformation and complexity reduction initiatives to further accelerate growth.
For 2025/26, dormakaba expects organic net sales growth in the range of 3–5% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of above 16%. To emphasize an increased focus on cash generation, the company expects an adjusted operating cash flow margin of 11.5–12.5% for the financial year 2025/26.
Together in progress: with gratitude for your support
We are a company rooted in engineering and manufacturing — and, above all, we are a people business, committed to meeting the high expectations of our customers and the communities they serve. The worldwide dormakaba team brings their talents and determination to work every day, creating and delivering innovative solutions to secure places that matter to people. Our sincere thanks go to them, and to the customers who trust us to fulfill their vision of new structures and spaces. Finally, we want to take this opportunity to thank you for your valued support as we continue our pivot toward sustained, profitable growth.
Sincerely,
Svein Richard Brandtzæg
Chairman
Till Reuter
CEO