Plansee Group reports increased sales
The Plansee Group has announced it increased consolidated sales to €1.26 billion in the fiscal year 2014/15, ended 28 February 2015.
“On an operational level we were able to increase sales by five percent. While sales prices remained stable, we achieved new record levels in our sales volumes,” stated Dr Michael Schwarzkopf, Chairman of the Executive Board of Plansee Group at the annual press conference in Reutte, Austria.
“This is the result of our sustainable investments in Research & Development” said Schwarzkopf
More than half of Group sales were achieved in the three sectors of mechanical engineering, automotive and consumer electronics. “We were surprised by the demand from the automotive and aerospace industries in Europe,” added Schwarzkopf. In Asia, the Plansee Group gained market shares with products for the consumer electronics industry.
In terms of the regions, sales remained stable compared with the previous year (Europe 49%, America 28%, and Asia 23%).
For the first time, 34% of sales were realised with products that are less than five years old. “This is the result of our sustainable investments in Research & Development,” said Schwarzkopf. On a Group-wide level, more than €60 million (5% of sales) were invested in innovation projects.
During the last fiscal year, the Plansee Group made investments of €180 million. These included acquisitions, new production plants in India and South Korea, investments in increased production capacities in Austria and Luxemburg and expenditures for product and process innovations.
In the current fiscal year, the Plansee Group expects the business development to remain stable and generally positive. “Unfortunately we continue to see no truly dynamic business recovery,” said Schwarzkopf. “That‘s why we focus on improving internal business processes, to optimize our global production network and to acquire companies to further strengthen our global market position.”
