At its peak, in 2021, pool cleaning robot company Maytronics (TASE: MTRN) was traded at a market cap of NIS 9.1 billion. Accordingly, the value of the holding of each member of Kibbutz Yizre’el, which controls the company (56%), was NIS 17 million.
Last Friday, following a severe profit warning, Maytronics’ share price fell by 7% and its market cap sank to a low of just NIS 291 million, 97% off the peak. The value of the holding of each member of the kibbutz in the north is now only about NIS 500,000. In other words, each kibbutz member has lost, on paper, NIS 16.5 million in five years.
Maytronics announced on Friday that it would make use of a relaxation by the Israel Securities Authority and release its fourth quarter and 2025 financials only in two weeks’ time. It has however already published a profit warning, projecting a huge loss of NIS 200-230 million for 2025, the main reason for that being a write-down of assets of NIS 80-100 million in the fourth quarter.
In the words of the company, which only recently replaced its CEO, "Several accounting matters were identified that are expressed in one-time provisions, a reduction in asset values, and revision of accounting estimates, that are likely to have a material impact on the company’s financial results."
The CEO who took on a company in crisis
At the end of 2025, against the background of the deterioration in Maytronics’ position, then CEO Sharon Goldenberg announced his resignation, and his term ended in February. He was replaced by Rafi Benami, who until recently was general manager of Applied Materials in Israel, where he worked for thirteen years. Benami takes up the reins at the height of a crisis. The end of Covid 19 restrictions led to a plunge in orders for the company’s products, large surplus stocks, and fierce competition from producers of cheap robots in China.
For the third quarter of last year, Maytronics posted a loss of NIS 40.3 million, which compares with a loss of NIS 19.4 million in the corresponding quarter of 2024. The increase in the loss was caused by erosion of gross profit margins, partly because of currency fluctuations, and higher indirect costs resulting from lower production quantities, as well as "action taken to reduce stocks."
In the first nine months of 2025, Maytronics had revenue of NIS 1.2 billion, 13% less than in the corresponding quarter of 2024. Gross profit fell 24%, to NIS 413 million, while operating profit shrank 60% to just NIS 40.6 million, and the company switched to a net loss of NIS 16.2 million, from a net profit of NIS 61.3 million in the first nine months of 2024.
Maytronics carried out a long series of streamlining measures last year, among them gradual consolidation of robot assembly, which had been carried out at factories at Dalton and Yizre’el, under one roof. Product lines were also rationalized, a move that the company expects will gather momentum in the coming year.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on April 6, 2026.
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