The two subsidiaries acquired by German press manufacturer Schuler AG in 2016 — AWEBA and Yadon — have already made a positive contribution to growth and earnings in their first year (
www.schulergroup.com).
The Göppingen-based group achieved strong growth in new orders (+17.6%) and order backlog (+13.5%). Over the year as a whole, Schuler won orders worth 1.20 billion euros (compared with 1.02 billion euros in 2015).
At 31 December 2016, the order backlog had risen to 1.01 billion euros (0.89 billion euros at the same point in 2015).
The operating result (EBITDA) of 122.6 million euros was well above the unadjusted prior-year figure of 70.9 million euros.
Schuler’s pre-tax earnings of 95.1 million euros in 2016 were well above the unadjusted prior-year figure of 44.0 million euros.
In 2016, the new members of the group — Chinese press manufacturer Yadon (as of 1 April) and the German tool-maker AWEBA (as of 30 June) — made a total ‘pro-rated’ contribution to consolidated sales of almost 120 million euros.
At the presentation of the group’s annual accounts, CEO Stefan Klebert said: “We are entering the new fiscal year with a strong tailwind from the higher level of new orders.
“The propensity of our customers to invest in new capital equipment has increased, the dip in sales and new orders from early 2016 is now behind us.
“The past year also underlined that our decision to acquire our new subsidiaries was strategically correct; they are both making above-average progress.”
At 537 million euros (605 million euros in 2015), Europe still accounted for the largest share of sales in 2016.
Sales in China remained stable at 299 million euros, while North America increased sales from 190 million to 267 million euros. The number of group employees rose from 5,176 to 6,617 (this figure includes Yadon and AWEBA).