Weidmüller achieved a turnover of 792 million euros in 2020. This is 4.5 percent less than in the previous year. "In view of the economic slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown, we are quite satisfied with the result despite the difficult conditions," explains Chief Technology Officer and Spokesman of the Executive Board Volker Bibelhausen.
While Weidmüller was able to buck the trend in 2019 and grow slightly, the recovery expected for 2020 did not materialize. On the contrary, there was no sign of a stable economic situation and the pandemic led to a significant global downturn.

"The decline here is primarily due to the economic situation in the mechanical engineering sector and the weak oil and gas business," adds Dr. Timo Berger, Chief Sales Officer. "The coronavirus crisis has also had an impact here." While the markets in Europe and America only picked up again in the second half of the year, the rapid recovery of the Chinese market in particular supported Weidmüller's business in the first half of the year. This was driven by strong demand for electronics and automation products as well as Industrial Ethernet components. By contrast, the areas of device connection technology and control cabinet components were down on the previous year.

Weidmüller recorded double-digit growth, particularly in the field of automation products. "Our customers confirm that we offer the right solutions for the market with our automation portfolio and our IIoT components," says Bibelhausen. Weidmüller was also able to grow in the renewable energy sector, with double-digit growth recorded in wind energy last year, for example.

Investments in research and development

With 51 million euros, Weidmüller invested more than 6.5 percent of its turnover in research and development in 2020. At the same time, Weidmüller is initiating the largest single investment in the company's history, investing in the future of the Detmold-based family business. A new logistics center is being built not far from Eisenach. Construction work has been underway since fall 2020, with completion planned for 2022. "With this investment in the double-digit million range, the family business is setting the course for further growth and more customer service in the area of shipping," says CFO André Sombecki with conviction.

The electronics specialist is continuously expanding its portfolio in the field of the Industrial Internet of Things - with solutions for recording, forwarding, processing and visualizing data and analysing it. The expansion of digitalization processes has increased significantly during the coronavirus crisis in industry. "We can also see this in the numerous inquiries for our Industrial IoT components and our machine learning tool AutoML. With these solutions, we support our customers in making their own processes and systems cloud-capable and optimizing them," confirms Bibelhausen. The same also applies to the range of products for control cabinet construction, for which Weidmüller offers fully coordinated solutions by taking a holistic view of the creation process.

Investments in new technologies

The topics of sustainability and climate neutrality have always been of particular importance to the family business. The electronics specialist is involved in e-mobility as well as new efficiency technologies, which are needed to reduce_{CO2 emissions}. In this context, the topic of green hydrogen, for example, is considered to have great potential. As a founding member of "AquaVentus", Weidmüller is underpinning its commitment in this future-oriented field.

This development association has set itself the task of decisively advancing the technology for the production of climate-neutral hydrogen from offshore wind energy. "Climate-friendly solutions, whether in energy generation, production or mobility, are both a responsibility and a matter of course for us. As a family-run, medium-sized company, we are making a contribution to achieving the climate neutrality target set by the EU and Germany by 2050," emphasizes Berger.

Confidence for the year 2021

The start of the year makes Weidmüller optimistic for 2021. "We had a very pleasing order intake at the beginning of the year," reports Sombecki. "We assume that - assuming there are no restrictions on the movement of goods - the economy will continue to recover and pick up speed in 2021." Weidmüller is a shaper in the world's most dynamic markets: electrification, automation and digitalization. "We can rely on a great team and are ready for the future with outstanding, innovative products and solutions," says the CEO with conviction.