Freudenberg hails 2013 as its greatest success
ERJ staff report (TP)
Weinheim, Germany – In the 165th year of its history, Freudenberg said it was more successful than ever before.
In the 2013 financial year, the technology group reported record sales for the fourth year in succession, on the previous consolidation basis at €6.6bn (previous year: €6.3bn).
Adjusted for the effects of acquisitions and disinvestments to the amount of €148.1m and exchange rate effects, sales were 5.4 percent or €338.9m higher than the previous year. Consolidated profit ran at €401.5m, based on a significant improvement in business operations, compared with the figure for the previous year (€432.7m), which included one-off extraordinary items. As at 31 December 2013, the Freudenberg Group employed 39,897 people (previous year: 37,453 people).
“Freudenberg is now more innovative and more successful than ever before,” said Dr Mohsen Sohi, Speaker of the Board of Management of the Freudenberg Group, at the annual press conference held in Weinheim. “Despite a challenging economic environment and negative exchange rate effects, we have grown profitably and sustainably. Sales increased in almost all Business Areas.”
Moody´s rating agency gave the Freudenberg Group (as Freudenberg SE for the first time) a rating of Baa1 and confirmed the outlook as “stable”.
In the Eurozone, Freudenberg’s largest sales region, they forecast a slight improvement in economic growth. Germany will again demonstrate above-average performance compared with other EU countries. In the US, they expect positive growth rates. As far as the emerging economies are concerned, they continue to anticipate high growth rates – albeit at a slightly lower level compared with previous years in some cases.
“For the Freudenberg Group, we expect moderate growth in sales and profit from operations in the 2014 financial year,” Dr Sohi said. “The broad diversification of our product portfolio will be the key success factor.”
The Freudenberg Group invested a total of about €555m including €229.3m in production plant, tangible assets, buildings and intangible assets.
In Germany, the Freudenberg Group invested about €120m, including about €30m at its headquarters.
In 2013, the Freudenberg Group expensed a total of €193m (previous year: €191.8m) for research and development, with more than half of this sum accounted for by the Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, Freudenberg Chemical Specialities and EagleBurgmann Business Groups.
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More details in the 2400-word press release from Freudenberg
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