In the first half-year, the Group realised revenue of DKK 5,810 million, corresponding to revenue growth of more than 16% in local currencies of which almost 7 percentage points were attributable to organic growth and 10 percentage points to acquired growth. Our business activity Hearing Devices delivered solid unit growth in our wholesale business and particularly strong growth in our retail business, whereas the business activities Diagnostic Instruments and Hearing Implants were both challenged by difficult market conditions in the first half.
Based on the new Velox platform, Oticon OpnTM was successfully launched in all key markets at the end of the first half-year, but it will mainly contribute to growth in the second half of 2016. Due to the late launch of OpnTM in June, we saw a slowdown in the high-end segment in the months leading up to the launch, particularly in the US. This resulted in negative product and country mixes in the first half of 2016, impacting the average selling price (ASP), which are, however, expected to improve in the second half-year.
To ensure continuous cost efficiency gains and to support our future scalability at a lower cost, we have defined several strategic initiatives to be implemented in 2016 to 2018. We consider cost-efficient and strong set-ups in operations and R&D to be among the key drivers of future profit growth. Therefore, we will continue to move operational activities to Poland and Mexico. Consequently, the production facility in Eagan (USA) was closed down in the first half of 2016, and we plan to move the remaining activities in Thisted (Denmark) to Poland before the end of 2018. We are evaluating the possibility of moving R&D from Switzerland to Poland and Denmark where we expect to increase staff.
In size and scope, the defined initiatives go beyond what would be characterised as normal business, and the total restructuring costs of around DKK 500 million from 2016 to 2018 will have a noticeable impact on our cost base and deliver annual savings of around DKK 200 million, once the initiatives are fully implemented, in addition to future scale effects. Restructuring costs incurred in the first half-year of 2016 amounted to DKK 52 million, and adjusted for this, operating profit (EBIT) was DKK 892 million (DKK 891 million in the first half of 2015). The adjusted EBIT margin was 15.4% in the period under review and was adversely impacted by strong retail growth of 43% in local currencies affecting the Group’s cost structure. Reported EBIT amounted to DKK 840 million (DKK 880 million in the first half of 2015).
In 2016, we maintain our expectations to generate growth in all our business activities and realise an operating profit (EBIT) of DKK 2.0-2.3 billion before restructuring costs, which are expected to total DKK 200 million in 2016.
