Sales and orders down at Trumpf

17 Jul 2024

Preliminary figures indicate near-10% fall in order intake for second year in succession.

Trumpf CEO Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller

Trumpf, one of the world’s leading suppliers of industrial lasers and related machine tools, says that both its sales and order intake have dropped over the past year.

At €5.2 billion, the preliminary figure for sales revenues represents a small decline from the record-breaking total of €5.4 billion posted a year ago.

Orders have dropped more rapidly, however, falling by 10 per cent to €4.6 billion for the year ending June 2024. That figure compares with €5.1 billion a year ago, and €5.6 billion the year before that.

Macro effects
Trumpf CEO Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller attributed the latest results to global trends rather than anything specific to Trumpf’s business, saying:

“The weak global economy and the ongoing geopolitical uncertainties led to a noticeable reluctance among many customers to make new investments in the past fiscal year.

“The persistently weak demand will also characterize the coming months of the current fiscal year. As usual, Trumpf is countering this economic crisis with clear measures to improve earnings.”

While Leibinger-Kammüller is yet to elaborate on the nature of those measures, other figures released by the family-owned firm show that Trumpf now employs some 18,550 people, up from 17,900 a year ago.

That includes 6000 at the company’s Ditzingen headquarters, near Stuttgart, among just over 9000 in Germany overall.

Germany ranks top
The preliminary results indicate that, for the first time in many years, the domestic German market represented Trumpf’s largest for sales.

At €815 million, sales in Germany were up 4.5 per cent, while sales to the US moved in the opposite direction, dropping by 12 per cent to €790 million. Sales to China rose by a little over 2 per cent, reaching €615 million.

As is normal, Trumpf will release full details of its latest financial year - including profitability and figures more specific to its laser business - in October, on publication of its annual report.