Despite the corona crisis, Rosenbauer posted record sales. Sales rose in the first half of the year from 395 to 458 million euros, as the manufacturer of fire fighting vehicles announced on Friday. Short-time work is only available in the production of fire helmets, and because the order books are still full, there is no risk of job cuts in the near future, said CEO Dieter Siegel.
There is no reason for reductions, but one is now “twice as careful” when recruiting. Rosenbauer now has around 4,000 employees worldwide, 1,600 of them in Austria, plus around 200 temporary workers. The company will continue to accept 30 to 40 new apprentices this year. Corona has not changed anything about that. However, the ongoing uncertainty is making the Board of Management cautious about longer-term developments. “It is too early to make forecasts about what the next few years will bring,” said Siegel. Experience has shown that the fire service industry follows the general economy with a gap of several months.
Rosenbauer worked short-time for three months during lockdown. “We deliberately slowed down the pace and didn’t produce 100 percent,” also in order to have reserves. “We were very afraid of problems in the supply chain,” but so far everything has stayed within limits. Although they continue to drive on sight, they have learned to deal with the pandemic and its consequences. The Upper Austrians remained cautious in dealing with the virus. External visitors are no longer allowed in Leonding, there is a minimum distance of two meters and meetings are held online.
The crisis has cost Rosenbauer 9 million euros so far. “We had a very good start in the first quarter, then came the corona crisis,” said Siegel. However, the third quarter started again with a positive upward trend. The CEO justified this with the fact that the fire fighting vehicle market was stable compared to other markets. The operating profit (EBIT) rose from 5.2 to 5.4 million euros, the profit for the period from 1.6 to 2.2 million euros.
Even in the airport business, which is important for Rosenbauer, Siegel only expects a slowdown, mainly because new airport projects or “third runways, or umpteenth runway, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the third” would be postponed or questioned. Rosenbauer helps that there are high security requirements for airports, these must also be complied with when fewer passengers land. Siegel sees a bigger question mark at military airports.
Rosenbauer’s order backlog has so far decreased by around EUR 100 million. As of June 30, 2020, it was 1.12 billion euros, a year earlier it was 1.23 million euros. “What we lacked were major orders,” said Siegel. Also in the incoming orders you can feel that the fire brigade festivals at the volunteer fire brigades have ceased due to Corona. However, these are an important source of income for the fire services.
Viewed globally, according to the board of directors, the market in Europe and North America is recovering, while in China there is a standstill and very little demand. This is also due to the fact that local authorities in Asia prefer local companies. In addition, the market there lived from the many large projects. Against the background of an unchanged solid order backlog, the Rosenbauer Executive Board expects a slight increase in sales and an EBIT margin of between 4 and 5 percent for the year as a whole.
Those: APA
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