“Our equity ratio makes us sleep well”

The International Window Network (IFN) had a very good year of business with sales growing by twelve percent to 612 million euros. The first half of 2020 also went well until the major slump came in March. This year the business volume should decrease to the same extent, yesterday said Christian Klinger, co-owner and company spokesman at the annual press conference.

Business has been going better since May. “We now have a good grip on the crisis and are in a better position than other industries,” said Klinger. The fact that his company has a very high equity ratio of 57 percent plays a decisive role in crisis management. “It is better to sleep if the company is well secured,” said Klinger.

Although many employees of the window network, which consists of seven companies, were registered for short-time work, only about ten percent of them were used by the window manufacturer Internorm, said CFO Johann Habring. 40 to 50 people are currently working short-time. Klinger praised this instrument. “Without short-time work, we would have had to consider layoffs.”

Two corona cases in the group

Overall, Klinger gave the government a good report, but criticized the communication at the beginning of the crisis measures. Many companies would have believed that they would have to lock up. At IFN, they continued to work after a short moment of shock, and they had succeeded with appropriate hygiene measures. There were only two Covid-19 cases in the entire group and these were in the home office and not in production.

Now it was time to look ahead. Klinger is hoping for a government thermal rehabilitation program that has already been announced. “We want an attractive and unbroken promotion that works quickly,” he said to politicians.

The operating result (EBIT) rose slightly in the previous year to EUR 33.2 (2019: 32) million. 70 new employees now result in 3750 full-time equivalents. Almost 30 million euros were invested in the previous year, said Habring, and in 2020 it will be 42.5 million euros. A budget of 30 million euros is planned for 2021. “It is our contribution that we can get the economy going again,” said Klinger. (hn)