Altensteig. Boosted by the start of series production for customer Mercedes Benz at four new production sites around the world, the Boysen Group increased its turnover to a new record level of 1.25 billion Euro in the 2014 financial year. This represented a rise of around 20 percent in turnover on the previous year for the exhaust technology specialist from Altensteig in Baden-Württemberg.
The figures presented by CEO Rolf Geisel also reveal significant positive development in personnel. Between the end of 2013 and the end of 2014, the number of employees at the 17 sites worldwide grew from 2,200 to 2,800 - more than 27 percent. Investments of 85 million Euro were posted in 2014, with Geisel explaining that a comparison with the previous year is "only of limited value, because 2013 marked the high point of our site expansion and the record mark of 130 million Euro was very much a special case".
Continuing his review of the past year, the Boysen CEO focused on three major projects that have enabled the company to move forward with such success: "The start of series production for the Mercedes Benz C Class at four new plants on four continents, the completion of our new plant in Ingolstadt, and the ongoing construction and expansion of our second development centre in Nagold."
Geisel also reported the first successes in Boysen's still relatively new business area of commercial vehicles. "Since the beginning of 2014, our Turmfeld plant in Altensteig has been producing exhaust technology for two MAN truck models. In the second half of the year, we also won the development contract for another premium manufacturer", Geisel revealed. He added: "The work on it will be carried out by the team at our Nagold site, where all of our group's commercial vehicle activities will be concentrated in the future."
However, the exhaust technology specialist's core business area remains the automotive sector. And the figures prove that in an international comparison Boysen is one of the fastest growing suppliers. Group turnover has more than trebled between 2004 and 2014. The number of sites has risen from ten to 17 in the past two years. And, as Geisel emphasised, the order books "continue to be full". For 2015, the CEO is forecasting turnover of around 1.5 billion Euro - a further 20 percent increase. In terms of the main drivers of turnover in the current year, he cites the forthcoming start of series production of exhaust systems for the new Audi A4, BMW 7 Series and Mercedes Benz GLC models, the latter of which will now be known as the GLC to align with the C Class segment.
If Boysen reaches its target figures for 2015, this will mean that both turnover and headcount will have risen by up to 50 percent within just two years. In the middle of this high-growth period, Geisel is taking his foot off the gas pedal. "For a supplier of our size, there were huge challenges in terms of capital requirements, staff recruitment and advance payments for our production and development activities. Some of these took a huge amount of effort to overcome."
He was at pains to dampen any euphoria about profits. "You can currently read everywhere that car manufacturers are pushing ahead with their cost cutting programmes. If you consider that supplier parts account for up to 75 percent of the value creation in a car, you can imagine where the pressure is being applied. For some years, our customers have expected continuous cost reductions and quality improvements from us, combined with innovative product developments in increasingly short time frames. In simple terms, we are delivering more and more and getting less and less money for it." As a result, earnings for 2014 were slightly down, as in the previous year.
Geisel is not overly worried about these requirements from his customers, as "negotiations of this kind have been part of our day-to-day business for a long time". He is much more concerned about securing jobs at the domestic production plants: "At Boysen we will do everything we can to retain our jobs in Germany, but a bit of support in improving the general conditions would do our country's economy good. The fact is that the work of each of our employees in China is contributing to protecting the job of their German colleagues. Looking at this differently in times of rapidly advancing globalisation is an alien concept in many ways."
***
The Boysen Group develops and produces manifolds, diesel particulate filters, silencers, trims and complete exhaust systems for cars, commercial vehicles and off-highway applications. In addition to its three main customers Audi, BMW and Daimler, the exhaust technology specialist works for the German car manufacturers Volkswagen and Porsche, the British manufacturers Bentley and Rolls Royce, the commercial vehicle manufacturers MAN and Daimler, and for Krauss Mafffei, mtu, Voith and others in the off-highway sector.
The Boysen Group currently employs around 2,800 people at 17 domestic and international sites. In addition to the development sites in Altensteig and Nagold, Boysen has production sites in Altensteig, Simmersfeld, Salching, Ingolstadt, Plauen and Achim, and also in France, Egypt, South Africa, India, China and the USA.
***
In case of any queries, please contact:
Christian Grimm
Marketing Team Leader
BIN Boysen Innovationszentrum Nagold GmbH & Co. KG
Carl-Friedrich-Gauss-Str. 4
72202 Nagold
Tel. 07452/8408-200
Fax 07452/8408-8200
E-mail christian.grimm(at)bin.boysen-online.de
Free for publication - please send copy
