Navigation service provider TomTom has had a “turbulent” year. This can be seen in the annual figures published by the company. The company reported a loss of millions.
The corona crisis hit the auto industry hard with collapsed sales and factory closures. This also affected sales of built-in navigation systems, software and digital maps.
Although TomTom says the pandemic has also hit him, CEO Harold Goddijn saw a “resilient” Enterprise, which helps companies, governments and developers with location technology.
The loss of turnover was “minimal” at 8 percent, compared to the consumer branch, which had more than half less income due to the lockdowns in Europe due to store closures.
“Our operating sales in automotive have improved since the losses in the second quarter,” said Goddijn. Nevertheless, the company recorded a decrease of more than a quarter compared to a year earlier.
In the same branch, TomTom also has a backlog of work worth 1.8 billion euros. According to Goddijn, this is due to lower car production of their customers in the short term, which impacted the order book.
The turnover for 2020 was 528 million euros, a quarter lower than the more than 700 million euros a year earlier. TomTom closed the year with a loss of 257.6 million euros. In order to save costs, expenditure has already been cut. Investments for the card and application platforms did remain stable.
TomTom expects to achieve revenue growth of 10 percent in navigation services in 2021. TomTom will also start buying back shares in the first quarter of 2021. The company previously decided not to do so due to the uncertain economic outlook.