AMBERG (dpa-AFX) - The Bavarian automotive supplier Grammer achieved an unexpectedly low result last year due to continuing problems in its North American business. Thanks to improved demand and price increases in Europe and Asia, sales rose by 7 percent to 2.3 billion euros. However, consolidated earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) only amounted to 42 million euros and 3 million euros after taxes, as the Group announced on Thursday.

The Management Board was optimistic for this year and referred to the order intake, which reached a record level of 2.7 billion euros last year. The focus is on getting out of the red in the American business. Other focal points are new center consoles for cars and new driver's seats for agricultural machinery. The Executive Board is targeting sales at the previous year's level and an increase in adjusted operating profit from 57 million to 75 million euros.

Grammer employs 14,200 people and manufactures headrests, armrests and center consoles for cars as well as seats for buses, trains, trucks, tractors and construction machinery. The majority shareholder is the Chinese Ningbo Jifeng Group./rol/DP/jha