sartorius expects declining sales and reduced profitability for the year it said late friday as a postpandemic slump continues to drag the german pharmaceutical firm sales should be lower in the lowtomid teens of percent in 2023 than in the previous year after climbing in 2022 to more than 4 billion euros 438 billion sartorius had previously guided for revenue growth in the low single digits this year sartorius which also makes laboratory equipment said the worse outlook is down to a lasting reduction in customers inventories after the covid19 boom as well as reduced production capacities as a result of the expected lower sales volumes the groups margin of underlying earnings before interest taxes depreciation and amortization should contract to around 30 from 338 last year it said the company had previously guided for a stable margin on the year sartorius made a weak start to 2023 when it reported its first update in april missing analysts forecasts for firstquarter sales and ebitda as a result of destocking among customers the company meanwhile said it views the current demand normalization after the pandemic as a phase that only temporarily overshadows the highly positive growth drivers of the life science and biopharma markets and backed its mediumterm targets to 2025