The Trumpf Group recorded a decline in sales revenues of 8 per cent to €3.5 billion at the end of fiscal 2019/20 on 30 June 2020. Its 2018/2019 fiscal year end sales amounted to €3.8 billion.
The order intake fell to €3.3 billion euros from fiscal year 2018/19 (€3.7 billion), representing a drop of 11 per cent.
Trumpf benefited from its high order backlog, with sales revenues exceeding incoming orders by €210 million.
At €309 million, the Group's operating earnings before taxes (EBIT) also declined in line with sales and fell by 11.5 per cent compared to the fiscal year 2018/19 (€349 million). However, thanks to the consistent implementation of its 'Koyer' earnings improvement programme, Trumpf was able to significantly dampen the decline in the EBIT margin. Due to the scaling back of capital expenditure and non-personnel costs as well as efficiency improvements, the company achieved a good overall return of 8.9 per cent (previous year: 9.2 per cent).
Trumpf also responded to the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020 through further cost-cutting measures, such as the use of excess balances on working time accounts and accumulated vacation days, and from April onwards, the introduction of short-time working and an additional cutback in non-personnel costs and expenditure on fixed assets. As a result, the decline in the Group's return was further cushioned.
Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller, chair of the group management board of Trumpf commented: 'We have been experiencing a slowdown in the global economy since fall 2018. Coronavirus has further intensified the decline – as a crisis within a crisis. However, our sales revenues fell much less than in the mechanical engineering sector as a whole. In addition, consistent cost management allowed us to keep the return almost at the previous year's level.'
Commenting on the outlook for fiscal 2020/21, which started on July 1, 2020, Mrs. Leibinger-Kammüller continued: 'The decline in sales revenues and new orders was halted in the first three months. We see cautious signs that the economic downturn is coming to an end, although there is still no upturn.'
