Automation technology
ifm defies the corona crisis
The coronavirus pandemic and the associated recession also affected ifm in the past financial year. However, thanks to the high level of diversification in a wide range of markets and a stable supply chain, the Group was able to achieve sales almost on a par with the previous year. The previous year's result was exceeded.
Following record sales of around EUR 1 billion in its anniversary year 2019, the automation technology specialist achieved total sales of EUR 960 million last year. This corresponds to a decline of 3.5 percent compared to the previous year. "The fact that our turnover only fell by around 1.4 percent compared to the previous year after adjusting for currency effects is due to the diversified market and industry structure of our sales, but also to our stable supply chain, especially last year, which enabled us to supply our customers worldwide almost without interruption despite the enormous challenges posed by the pandemic," says Christoph von Rosenberg, CFO of the ifm Group. "Even though currency effects weakened our sales performance by 2 percent, we see our performance in the midst of a global recession as confirmation of our long-term growth strategy. A key success factor was once again the strong growth of our global customer base, which increased by 5.3 percent to 183,000."
Ifm responded with appropriate measures very early on at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and was thus able to increase earnings (EBIT) year-on-year to 7.8% (previous year: 5.6%). The measures taken were also important for job security: the number of employees worldwide amounted to around 7,300 at the end of 2020 and was thus maintained at the high level of 2019. Von Rosenberg is optimistic about the current year: "Of course, a lot depends on the course of the pandemic and the progress of the vaccination. However, we have started 2021 with a high order load and believe we are well equipped for the future, so we believe we will already exceed the pre-crisis level this year."
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