In 2011, Dürr generated 65% of its incoming orders in the emerging markets. Roughly one-third of all the orders came from China, where Dürr has over 1,400 employees (including hired external labor). Demand also picked up appreciably in North America. The earnings improvement resulted from the strong growth in sales revenues and associated scale effects combined with a moderate development of costs. The financial result improved by € 3.4 million to € -20.7 million. This was mainly due to the improved financing structure with the corporate bond issued in 2010. With an effective tax rate of 25.1%, net profit for the year comes to € 64.3 million.
Continuing with its innovation strategy, Dürr increased its R&D spend by 14.4% to € 29.5 million. Capital expenditure rose to € 43.0 million (2010: € 28.7 million). Just under € 20 million of that was on acquisitions: Dürr acquired equity interests of 55% in the Danish filling equipment specialist Agramkow and 10% in the Japanese paint systems engineer Parker Engineering. In addition, the Clean Technology Systems division, which specializes in energy efficiency, acquired a 50% stake in the technology firm Cyplan, which specializes in the production of electricity from waste heat.
Operating cash flow grew by € 72.5 million to € 127.9 million. This was mainly due, on the one hand, to the improvement in earnings while, on the other hand, net working capital increased only marginally despite the strong growth in business. In November 2011, Dürr acquired its headquarters in Bietigheim-Bissingen which the company had previously leased. Despite the acquisition cost of € 51 million, the Group had net cash of € 51.8 million as of the reporting date. Owing to the growth in earnings, equity increased by 14% to € 364.3 million.
In 2011, Dürr hired 792 additional employees worldwide; another 116 employees were added by the Agramkow acquisition. Of the Group’s total workforce of 6,823 employees, the emerging markets account for 31% and Germany for 46%. 197 new jobs were created at the German locations.
Outlook
The strong demand continued in the first weeks of the current year. Dürr therefore expects the market environment in the automotive industry to remain positive. The North American market, too, is witnessing gratifying growth. Thus, Dürr is able to amply offset the weaker demand in Western Europe, which accounted for only 9% of orders (without Germany) in 2011.
Judged from today’s vantage point, order intake should top the € 2 billion mark this year. Sales revenues are expected to be up at least 5% to over € 2 billion. This is supported by the high order backlog and Dürr’s strong position in the emerging markets. Earnings should again outpace sales revenues; an EBIT margin of 5.5 to 6.0% is targeted for 2012. The number of employees will probably rise by about 300. Besides the emerging markets, additional jobs should also be created in Germany.
All the figures stated are preliminary figures and have not been audited. They have not yet been approved by the Supervisory Board.
