Investors

Glaston sets medium-term strategic targets

Glaston’s Board of Directors has approved adjusted net sales and comparable return on capital employed (ROCE) targets and an extended target period for the strategic targets.

Since the previous strategy update in August 2021, there have been significant changes in the global economy and Glaston’s addressable markets started to soften in 2023. Due to these changes, the time for reaching the strategic targets has been modified to reflect the current expectations. Glaston has adjusted the timeframe for achieving the strategic targets from 2025 to the medium-term (3−5 years) except for the emissions reduction targets with a timeframe up to 2032.

Glaston has also slightly updated the net sales target and expects the annual average growth to exceed the addressable equipment markets’ growth. The updated target for comparable return on capital employed (ROCE) is above 16%. The target for the comparable operating margin (EBITA) of 10% remains unchanged.

Glaston estimates that in 2025, the Architectural markets in China and EMEA stayed flat at the previous year’s lower level, while they declined in Americas and the rest of APAC. The mobility market in China returned to a more normal level after a record year in 2024, and elsewhere stayed flat.

Glaston’s medium-term (3-5 years) strategic targets:

• Annual average net sales growth (CAGR) exceeding the addressable equipment markets growth
• Comparable operating margin (EBITA) of 10%
• Comparable return on capital employed (ROCE) of above 16%
• Customer satisfaction score (Net Promoter Score, NPS) above 40.
• Group-wide zero lost time accidents target, progress measured by lost time accidents per million working hours (LTIFR)
• Employee Engagement target above 75 (out of 100)
• GHG emissions reduction targets:
  • Reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 50.4% by 2032, compared to the 2022 base year (1,491 tCO₂e)
  • Reduce the scope 3 GHG emissions by 58.1% per square meter of sold machine processing capacity by FY2032 (emission intensity). Base year 2022: 0.00043 tCO₂/m²

CEO Miika Äppelqvist in the January-March 2026 interim report, published on April 29, 2026: 

“In the first quarter of 2026, uncertainty in the global business environment increased further. The beginning of the year is typically a quieter period for us; however, our first-quarter performance was additionally affected across our Market Areas by the outbreak of the war in the Middle East in March. The Services business was not as heavily affected, and activity remained at a good level throughout the quarter. Demand for service work increased in EMEA and Americas and we also closed deals for several smaller upgrades.

Reflecting the challenging market environment, order intake was down by 14% totaling EUR 40.5 million. Order intake for Tempering and Laminating Technologies was below the level of the previous year, while order intake for Insulating Glass Technologies was up by 13%. Mobility, Display & Solar Technologies’ order intake was on the same level as in the previous year. Among the highlights in the order intake was the order for Glaston ULTRA TPS® lines for manufacturing insulating glass units with ultra-thin center glass enabling our customers to truly differentiate in the market with energy performance and unit weight. We also closed a deal for our brand-new automatic loading system, which is an important add-on to our tempering furnaces, helping our customers further automate their production and to gain efficiencies. The order intake for Services was up by 8%.

First-quarter net sales were down by 21% to EUR 40.9 million, which was primarily due to the low number of new orders in the second and third quarters of last year and the timing of some project deliveries to customers. Services’ net sales represented 48% of total net sales, highlighting its importance in our offering. Supported by our cost control measures, comparable EBITA was EUR 2.7 million and EBITA margin was up year-on-year at 6.5%.

In this environment, the execution of the cost‑saving program was accelerated. In addition to personnel expenses, the comprehensive program includes initiatives to enhance supply‑chain efficiency, reduce ICT costs, and implement a broad range of measures aimed at reducing the company’s fixed cost base. We have been able to identify and execute cost-saving measures at a faster pace than expected, and the actions implemented up to the end of the first quarter will lead to annual run rate savings of approximately EUR 6 million. These will be realized during 2026.

Given the increased uncertainty in the global business environment, we expect market activity to remain slow. In this tough business climate with increasing price competition, we will continue to focus on winning the right deals, developing our service business, and adjusting our operations in a disciplined manner, ensuring readiness when market conditions improve.”

GLASTON’S OUTLOOK FOR 2026
In 2026, the glass processing equipment markets are expected to remain soft. Due to increased geopolitical tensions, a significant recovery for the architectural glass processing equipment markets is not expected in the near future. Driven by China, the mobility glass processing equipment market is expected to remain on the same level as in 2025. While the equipment markets remain soft, the service business environment is expected to remain resilient and at a good level, supported by the installed base and ongoing customer demand for lifecycle services.

In the current market environment, Glaston continues its actions for improved efficiency, cost management, and selective growth opportunities. Amid increasing global economic unpredictability, a higher-than-normal uncertainty is related to customers’ investment activity.

Glaston entered the year with a lower order backlog than the previous year. Given the cautious market environment, Glaston Corporation estimates that its net sales and comparable EBITA will decrease in 2026 from the levels reported for 2025. In 2025, Group net sales totaled EUR 208.8 million and comparable EBITA was EUR 14.0 million.

Glaston Corporation develops, manufactures, sells and services glass processing machines, equipment, upgrades and technology to glass processors in the architectural, mobility and solar industries.

Glaston’s operations are divided into three Business Functions: Market Areas, Solutions & Operations and Services.   

Market Areas

The market areas operate at the customer interface and, in close cooperation with the two other business functions, manage the sale of machines and services and lead the regional service functions.

Solutions & Operations

The Solutions & Operations business function is globally responsible for production operations, sourcing and supply chain. Production of Glaston technologies is located in Tampere, Finland, Neuhausen, Germany, and Tianjin, China.

Services

Services leads the global lifecycle business, services development, pricing, spare part operations, demand planning and warehousing .

Glaston offers a technically advanced and wide range of heat treatment machines, maintenance, upgrade, and modernization services, as well as spare parts for glass tempering and laminating.

Energy efficiency and the need to improve the energy performance of buildings is gaining more importance in the market and drives the demand for insulating glass.  Glaston offers high-technology machines for the production of insulating glass, as well as maintenance, upgrade, and modernization services and spare parts.

For the mobility market, Glaston offers pre-processing and heat treatment technologies and these enable cutting and grinding the glass into the correct shape, to bend, temper or bend-temper the glass into its final form used in different applications. Also, related service business is included in the offering.

Glaston’s offering also includes products for the heat treatment of solar panel glass.

More information about our products is available in the Offering section.

Glaston is a frontrunner in its field, and known in the glass industry for its technology leadership and high quality. Our position is particularly strong in developing technologically demanding products. Glaston carries out product development in close cooperation with its customers and partners, such as research institutes, universities and other higher education institutions.

The most advanced glass processing machines developed by Glaston have risen to the status of standards in many countries. We hold patents for all of our key solutions.

The main themes of our product development are projects and innovations related to glass processing and robotics that facilitate the transition towards fully automated glass processing.

One of our latest innovations is the tempering process Autopilot, which is based on the same solutions that are used in autonomous passenger cars. Autopilot presages a huge change for the entire glass processing industry, as it minimizes the need for machine operator input and offers process control without parameters.

In 2024, development of new features for existing machines to enable the production of new products and to increase productivity, continued. Also, the development of new retrofit solutions for improved performance for existing machines continued.

Features for online quality monitoring during the production process were also one of the key focus areas in product development.

In 2025, research and product development expenditure amounted to 3.9 (4.7)% of net sales.

More information about our major technology innovations here.