"234 million euros more turnover in one year, with almost the same sales prices by the end of the year, and everything produced and procured in-house - we've never had that before," says igus Managing Director Frank Blase. "Our colleagues have worked wonders. And we were lucky that we were able to implement our investment plans even in the bad year 2020." Turnover in 2021 amounted to 961 million euros.

32% more sales than in 2020 also means 26% more than in the record year of 2019. This year also saw the start of the implementation of the plan, which is known internally as "No. 1 Catalog": more than 80,000 items are now in stock or in higher quantities. In 15 distribution warehouses worldwide, the proportion of catalog products shipped on the same day or within 24 hours rose to at least 25%.

"This is probably why sales growth is almost the same in all product segments," says Blase. The online store pages also received improvements. Online sales increased by 55% in 2021. "Customers need to be able to decide immediately on the web whether the plastic solution can be used and then have it delivered quickly. That's part of the 'easiest company to deal with' goal," says Blase.

500 new injection molding machines

The war in Ukraine and the shortages in many markets are prompting igus to invest even more in material availability in the short term. At the same time, investments in higher production capacities are continuing. Since 2020, production in Cologne has been increased or modernized by 300 injection moulding machines. A further 200 are on order.

The new production building in Cologne with an additional 20,000 square meters of space is expected to be completed on 1 May 2023. New storage facilities for 12,000 pallets have already been built in 2021. Plans are currently underway to further expand the "igus Campus Cologne", for which the company has acquired adjacent areas with a total size of 20,000 square meters. The expansion of the 35 foreign subsidiaries amounted to a total of 60,000 square meters of floor space.

Higher output in chip production

Customers from over 50 industries are constantly approaching igus with new challenges. For example, cleanroom cables for chip production: "New types of flexible cable feed solutions such as the e-skin flat are in high demand, especially in the booming semiconductor industry," says Peter Mattonet, Industry Manager Cleanroom at igus. "Being able to replace a cable within a few minutes is a revolution for production and increases the urgently needed output."

The pace of innovation at igus did not slow down in the second year of home office and remote working - as demonstrated by 168 product developments such as the motion plastics gearwheels, manufactured using injection molding and available in the online store with 740 different items. The four-year-old "smart plastics" business unit launched twelve new products for condition monitoring, preventive maintenance and IoT in 2021 alone. In combination with real-time line monitoring for Ethernet lines and the integrated solar-powered EC.I condition sensor, customers can now completely avoid unexpected system downtimes.

Digitization

Low-cost robot integration with online consultation and a fixed price - this is the promise fulfilled by RBTXpert, which igus launched in 2021 as a digital + human service. Experts test customer requirements in a 400 square meter Customer Testing Area before an offer is made. Typical solutions cost 8,500 euros in hardware and 20 hours of integration, which means a payback period of just a few months.

Internationally, the service is already available in seven countries, with a further 14 in the pipeline. Three new online tools have brought the total to 58. "Our customers' do-it-yourself engineering doubled last year to 5,000 value-adding uses on the web per day," says Frank Blase.

95 percent climate-neutral

On the way to climate-neutral production by 2025 - 95% achieved to date according to Scope 1 and 2 (Greenhouse Gas Protocol) - various projects were tackled at igus last year: A total of 100 older injection moulding machines were replaced with 40 percent more energy-efficient models; energy management was further optimized and an ISO certificate for this will follow at the end of March.

In addition, igus planted 15,687 trees in 23 countries. Plastic waste in production that cannot be directly recycled was reduced by 21 percent. The global energy chain recycling program chainge has also grown in recent years and has been rolled out internationally. This spring, igus is presenting its first energy chain product made from 100 percent recycled materials from the chainge program.