17/01/13
Further growth of the operating result
Investment in growth markets
Sales increase of 2.9 percent
Künzelsau. In the business year 2012, the Würth Group achieved the highest sales volume in corporate history at 9.98 billion EUR. According to the preliminary annual financial statement, the company thus grew by 2.9 percent. The sales growth of the Würth Group, which is low compared to the past years, is primarily to be explained by the sales decline in Southern Europe. The number of employees went down by 1.4 percent to 65.169 worldwide (previous year: 66,113). The operating result 2012 will increase disproportionately to the Group’s sales to EUR 410 – 420 million.Robert Friedmann, Chairman of the Würth Group’s Central Managing Board, is ambivalent in his evaluation of the past business year: “It is true that most of the business units grew this year, and the sales figures reported by our companies in North America and Scandinavia are particularly pleasing, yet a number of companies were hit very hard by the poor economic situation in Southern Europe. In 2013, we have to launch offensives at fast growing regions and industries at full force which is why already in 2012 we made a few well-targeted acquisitions in the chemical industry. In stagnating markets, though, we will keep a low profile.”
The planning for 2013 sees the Würth Group reporting growth in the medium single-digit range owing to the fact that in the currently insecure development of the global economy no growth impulses are to be expected.
via Press release.