Dusseldorf After a record year, Würth CEO Robert Friedmann is “cautiously optimistic about 2023” despite the many economic and political imponderables, but is curbing expectations. In the current year, he only expects a mid-single-digit percentage increase in sales and earnings at the previous year’s level, he said on Thursday at the balance sheet press conference. In 2022, revenues increased by 16.8 percent.
In the first quarter, the world market leader for assembly and fastening material increased sales by 9.3 percent compared to the previous year, and the operating result increased by 2.3 percent. The family company does not give any absolute figures for the period. In Germany, Würth grew by 12.8 percent in the first three months.
In March, sales exceeded two billion euros in one month for the first time, explained Friedmann. In April, however, growth weakened to just around six percent. The CEO warned that this year there will be differences in the business areas.
The biggest driver in the first three months was electrical wholesale, on which the company is increasingly focusing, with an increase of 23 percent. Responsible for this is above all the boom in the field of renewable energies, said Friedmann.
The manager hopes to counteract the feared slump in the construction industry by continuing to focus on the electronics trade: “We can already see from the new orders from the construction sector that demand is falling,” he said. However, the industrial construction activities are still high, and in the first quarter one did not see a drop in demand.
Other areas such as the US business, on the other hand, got off to a poorer start in the year. The company is also currently feeling a somewhat declining demand after many craftsmen, the company’s main target group, stocked up, especially last year.
Patriarch Reinhold Würth positions himself on the subject of AI
The 56-year-old Friedmann knows his role: he has been the CEO of one of the largest family companies in Germany for 18 years and leaves the stage to the patriarch when it comes to the really big issues.
Owner Reinhold Würth, now 88 years old, emphasizes the great importance of logistics for the company in a recorded film: what is ordered is also delivered, said Würth. “Logistics is one of the core areas of our work.” Almost 12,000 people work in this area at Würth. The entrepreneur says that there are programs in which the goods reach the customer within two hours.
Würth also used the balance sheet press conference to position itself clearly on artificial intelligence (AI): it has “a great future”. He deals a lot with the year 2050. “The positive thesis is that we get incredible relief from human work through AI.”
The 88-year-old company founder has trusted the Würth boss for almost 20 years.
Photo: FloHagena/fotolevel/Würth Elektronik/obs
(Photo: FloHagena/fotolevel/Würth Elektronik/obs)
Company boss Friedmann explained what this means for the company: The degree of automation in logistics should be 75 percent by the end of the decade, currently it is 34 percent. Friedmann emphasized that this would in no way mean that jobs would be cut, on the contrary. More than 85,000 people now work for the Künzelsau-based company.
Best values for sales and operating result
And the number is quickly increasing, also through acquisitions such as that of the listed electrical wholesaler Tim in Poland, which Würth would like to take over: Its attractiveness lies in the high e-commerce share of 70 percent. The takeover has not yet been completed; Würth must first convince half of the shareholders.
The company benefited last year from hiring more people, investing more and storing more. The focus on the ability to deliver secured record sales of 19.9 billion euros for the world market leader in assembly and fastening materials, as Würth announced on Thursday. At the balance sheet press conference, it was said that only seven hours were missing to reach the 20 billion euros.
With 1.6 billion euros, the Group also achieved a new record in operating profit. Equity rose by 16 percent to EUR 7.9 billion, which corresponds to an equity ratio of 46 percent.
With 43,000 employees, Würth employs one of the world’s largest sales teams, said Friedmann. There are also 2,500 branches. At the same time, the company generated more than 20 percent of its sales online for the first time in 2022. The latter is a strategic growth area of the Würth Group, said the company boss.
When asked whether the large sales team is now losing importance, Friedmann said: “Sales is not becoming less important, it is still growing, albeit a little less.” Sales remain the most important asset of the group.
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