Record growth in the 2021 financial year

The Festo Group had a record year in 2021. Order intake was 26% higher than in the previous year. The number of employees in Germany and abroad remained roughly constant and, as in the previous year, stood at around 8,600 in Germany and around 12,100 abroad at the end of 2021.

The mechanical engineering sector benefited greatly from the recovery in the global economy and industrial production. Festo achieved double-digit growth in virtually all regions in 2021. China, India and other Asian countries in particular, such as South East Asia and the Pacific, fueled global growth despite the ongoing supply chain problems and bottlenecks in electronic components.

Massive investments in the semiconductor/electronics industry, digitalization, new mobility, the life tech and biotech/pharmaceutical industries as well as solid investment activity in the food industry were the basis for Festo's high growth with automation technology.

High investment in research and development

Festo invested around 7% in research and development in 2021. "Our innovation pipeline is full to bursting with new products, which we are now presenting to our customers at Hannover Messe 2022. Last year, we made great progress with important innovations such as digital and intelligent pneumatics, automation platforms and concepts for saving energy in pneumatics. We are also working on completely new fields of innovation, such as collaborative pneumatic robotics, which we will be showcasing for the first time in Hanover," said Oliver Jung.

Climate-neutral by the end of 2023

Automation is an important enabler for making industrial production climate-neutral. "Festo will massively reduce its CO2 footprint over the next two years. As a result, all our production and logistics locations worldwide, as well as the German sales locations and the company headquarters in Esslingen, will be CO2-neutral by the end of 2023," explained Jung.

Festo has aligned its sustainability strategy with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, which are relevant to the company.

The Festo Group continued to record double-digit sales and order intake in the first quarter of 2022. No conclusive statements can yet be made for the second quarter.

There are growing uncertainties due to the pandemic, particularly in Asia, and the effects of the war in Ukraine. High energy, material and transportation costs are having a negative impact on business, as is the continued shortage of raw materials and electronic components.

"We are currently establishing alternative supply chains in order to decouple ourselves as far as possible from critical markets, particularly for energy-intensive materials. We are also increasing our inventories of core products in all regions," says Oliver Jung.

Robust supply chain

Festo has made its global production and logistics network even more robust. Overall, the parallelization of production close to the markets "in the region for the region" is also becoming increasingly important in terms of sustainability and short transport routes.

"2022 will be another very challenging year - both from a human and economic perspective. Our order books are well filled, but the further development of the pandemic and the situation in war and crisis zones as well as the supply chain are difficult to predict. Overall, we expect further growth and are consistently investing in innovation, digitalization and sustainability. We are also demonstrating this here at the Hannover Messe," explained Oliver Jung.