By Amir Orusov and Anastasiia Kozlova
(Reuters) -Sonova, the world’s largest maker of hearing aids, said on Friday that most of its products should be exempt from U.S. tariffs, as it forecast higher sales and profitability for the 2025/26 fiscal year.
The Swiss group plans to leverage the so-called Nairobi Protocol, which exempts from tariffs some devices for people with long-term disabilities.
Hearing instruments and audiological care businesses, which account for 85% of Sonova’s revenue, fall under this protocol, CEO Arnd Kaldowski told Reuters.
While Sonova projects slower hearing aid market growth in 2025 at 1% to 3%, versus 5% to 9% growth historically, it expects market share gains to boost its results.
As tech-driven competition intensifies in the sector, Sonova grabbed the first-mover advantage with the rollout of its new Infinio platform and hearing aid utilising real-time artificial intelligence last year.
Despite its higher price, many customers have preferred the benefits of the real-time AI hearing device Sphere Infinio over the simpler version in the same brand. The new device made up around a half of the new platform’s sales last year.
Sonova expects its operating earnings before amortisation (EBITA) to grow by 14% to 18% and sales to rise by 5% to 9% in the year through March 2026, after it beat market expectations for 2024/25 results.
The outlook assumes no significant additional tariffs beyond those already known, Sonova said. Both metrics are given in constant exchange rates and adjusted for special items, but include restructuring costs.
NEW MANAGEMENT TEAM
Sonova said that Kaldowski, who has been its CEO for nearly eight years, would step down at the end of September due to personal reasons. He will be succeeded by Eric Bernard, a former CEO of hearing care company WS Audiology.
That means Sonova will be moving ahead with a new leadership team, after it also appointed Elodie Carr-Cingari as a finance chief in December. She will start the job in July at the latest.
While managerial changes may cause some uncertainty among investors, Kaldowski said Sonova’s strong market position made it a good time for such transition.
($1 = 0.8310 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Amir Orusov and Anastasiia Kozlova in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
