Stuttgart Even for long-established family businesses like the mechanical engineering company Trumpf from Ditzingen near Stuttgart, the dependence on the Chinese market is growing massively. In China, sales of the medium-sized company rose in the past financial year (June 30) after a corona-related weak previous year by more than half to 525 million euros, while sales in Germany fell by a good five percent to 612 million euros.
“There are only 50 million euros difference to our largest market, Germany,” said Trumpf boss Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller on Tuesday at the presentation of the balance sheet.
The head of the family business is worried about the growing trade conflict between the USA and China. “Withdrawal is not an option, we have to come to terms,” said Leibinger-Kammülller. After all, business in Asia ensures the high proportion of employment in Germany. Half of the almost 15,000 Trumpf employees are employed in the home market.
The head of the family business Trumpf has hopes for the upcoming traffic light coalition in the federal government. “Now it is important that digitization and de-bureaucratisation are implemented courageously.”
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The entrepreneur wants a sense of proportion in the transformation and decarbonization of the economy. “Everything must not be carried out on the backs of the company and the employees,” said Leibinger-Kammüller. She is likely to keep a close eye on future foreign policy and relations with China.
Politically, China is not developing in the right direction. That is a huge challenge. “It’s getting more difficult every day. There are always new regulations and restrictions “, confirms the responsible Trumpf managing director Stephan Mayer,” We try to be perceived locally as a Chinese company and rely as much as possible on local suppliers. ”
High demand for EUV lasers
With the strategy “local for local” and a Chinese management, Trumpf is trying to bypass the greatest obstacles. “But we are not giving up our values, such as equal treatment of employees,” assured Leibinger-Kammüller. The Chinese subsidiary adheres to compliance rules, even if business is lost as a result.
With its high presence in China, the German medium-sized company was also able to benefit disproportionately from the upswing there. The bottom line was that sales rose by 0.5 percent to 3.5 billion euros. According to the company, the operating result increased by almost a fifth to 370 million euros thanks to strict cost management.
The mainstay was the electronics business and the EUV laser. Trumpf supplies the machine manufacturer ASML with them. The monopoly manufactures exposure machines for semiconductors – and is currently experiencing an upswing.
Without the technology from Trumpf and ASML, chip giants such as TSMC, Intel or Samsung would not be able to manufacture the latest generation of chips with structure sizes of five nanometers. CTO Peter Leibinger justified the fact that sales in the segment still fell by five percent to 437 million euros with the change in strategy at a major customer.
After a change of boss, Intel had also opted for EUV and ordered new machines instead of the previous models. Because of the delivery times for EUV, sales are now postponed to later quarters. “We will see the boom in EUV in the figures again this year,” said Leibinger.
Record number of incoming orders
The company’s incoming orders show what Leibinger means: in the past quarter alone, it grew by 20 percent to 3.9 billion euros. However, the cautious Swabian at the top of the company warns not to equate this value with possible sales: “There is great uncertainty as to how the bottlenecks in the global supply chains for chips, inflation, rising energy prices and their effect on transport costs and capacities will affect ours Business will impact. ”
In the best-case scenario, Leibinger-Kammüller expects sales growth in the double-digit percentage range and a constant EBIT return of 10.5 percent.
In the corona crisis, Trumpf had also cut investments by a quarter to 154 million euros in order to relieve the cash register. But the Swabians did not save on research and development. With a slight increase of 382 million euros, the medium-sized company achieved a record rate of 10.9 percent of sales.
The company is known for its long-term strategies. The company had developed the EUV high-power lasers for the semiconductor industry over 15 years and spent hundreds of millions.
The green lasers for high-precision welding work in battery cell production were also developed for a long time. The next great hope at Trumpf is photonics, which enables data transmission with light. The first quantum sensors, which are causing a revolution in industrial measurement technology, are already being developed with the partner Sick.
Another project is quantum chips. According to his own statements, Peter Leibinger is investing a double-digit million amount here. As a family company that is not dependent on the stock exchange, you have staying power, emphasizes CTO Leibinger.
Trumpf is active in areas of the future with laser and semiconductor technology and is banking on cooperation. Trumpf is currently investing in platform technologies with the optics specialist Zeiss and the sensor manufacturer Sick, among others. There is a consensus in corporate management to go this way. “We agree to spend the money on it,” confirmed his sister Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller.
Trumpf also sees itself in a pioneering role in employee management. The management and works council, with their more than 5,000 employees, agreed on a new alliance for work for the Ditzingen, Gerlingen and Hettingen locations on January 1, 2022. Among other things, mobile working will be reorganized.
While in the pre-Corona period 20 percent of working time was possible as mobile work, departments and teams will have significantly greater flexibility in the future. Trumpf wants to go the way from a “culture of attendance to a culture of results”. There will no longer be precise percentages or hours specified by the company.
More: A surprise from the middle class: Trumpf develops a quantum chip