Machine tool and power tool brand TRUMPF has seen sales increase 15% in fiscal year 2017/2018 (ended 30 June 2018).
Sales reached €3.6 billion euros (2016/17: €3.1 billion), according to preliminary calculations. Orders received rose to €3.8 billion euros (2016/2017: €3.4 billion), up around 13%.
Germany was the biggest single market with sales of over €700 million, followed by the USA and China, each with sales of around €450 million. Sales to European customers were also encouraging, the firm said, where the expansion of the EUV business had a significant impact. TRUMPF supplies special lasers to ASML, a customer in the Netherlands; these lasers use extreme ultraviolet radiation to expose chip surfaces for the computer industry.
“In many markets, we exceeded our targets, with all our products contributing," said TRUMPF CEO Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller. "We registered gratifying growth in the future technology of additive manufacturing – that is, in industrial 3D printing – and in the laser business for microchip manufacturers. Even so, we are monitoring the global economy's development very closely. There are increasing signs that this long phase of recovery could soon be over. We want to be prepared for that."
The number of employees across the Group rose more than 10% to around 13,500. There were 6,700 people employed in Germany as at June 30, 2018, with nearly 3,900 working at the Ditzingen headquarters.
In the past fiscal year, TRUMPF continued to invest in digital connectivity and began optimising sheet metal machining processes towards the goal of fully automated production. A large share of investments again went to the structural expansion of locations in and outside of Germany. The company erected a manufacturing building with clean rooms and office space at the headquarters in Ditzingen to expand its high-tech production capabilities, particularly for lasers used in EUV lithography for microchips. It also invested in manufacturing buildings at the Teningen and Schramberg locations. The TRUMPF Group's largest production site was set up in China. The majority of investments went to the locations in Germany. Significant investments were also made at the sites in the USA and Asia.
