Plansee reports fiscal results for 2019/2020
July 8, 2020
The Plansee Group, headquartered in Reutte, Austria, has reported its financial results for the fiscal year 2019/2020. The company stated that the recession in key industries, as well as trade disputes, led to a decline in demand causing sales in the group to drop 10% over the fiscal year.
Over the year, the group’s portfolio as a whole was said to have proved robust. The group companies reported revenue of €2.9 billion, while production sales in Breitenwang/Reutte were reported at €635 million. Worldwide, the group employed 13,796 employees, with a staff in Austria of 2,368.
The group now states that it feels well-prepared to cope with the economic consequences of the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Over 2019/2020, its investment volume was €206 million, and expenditures on research and development amounted to €68 million.
“In addition to the trade conflict between the USA and China, declining orders from the European automotive and the mechanical engineering industry in particular resulted in the slump in sales in the 2019/2020 fiscal year,” explained Karlheinz Wex, spokesman of the executive board of the Plansee Group, during its annual press conference in Reutte.
Overall sales fell from €1.52 billion to €1.38 billion in 2019/2020. Despite this development, the Plansee Group continued to invest heavily in equipment and infrastructure and research and development, and states that this decision has paid off; new products accounted for 31% of sales in the past fiscal year, up from 29%. The equity ratio rose from 58–61%, reaching what the company states is a peak level.
The COVID-19 crisis was said to have presented special challenges for the Plansee Group. From the start of the crisis, all measures were directed at protecting its employees from becoming infected and maintaining production at all locations worldwide, stated Wex.
Despite temporary closures of individual plants, the group was able to maintain almost all deliveries to its international customers between the months of March and May. “Our customers count on us being able to supply them,” Wex added. “Plansee components and tools ensure that the electricity is on, X-ray machines work, or food and medical products can be packaged in glass without hygiene concerns.”
“We have to expect the business environment to remain difficult this year,” he explained, looking ahead to the economic consequences of COVID-19. “At the same time, we’re convinced that the Plansee Group is competitively positioned and, above all, prepared for crises.”
He added that, over its ninety-nine years in business, the company has become accustomed to successfully handling the ups and downs of the markets. It stated that the key during COVID-19 was to convince its customers of its strengths and seize every business opportunity available.
Plansee recorded increasing demand from the medical technology and the semiconductor industry over the fiscal year 2019/2020, and the global footprint of its production and logistics network is said to have ensured that during the COVID-19 crisis, all customers could be supplied wherever they needed the company’s products and tools.
