08/02/2024|Company
Böllhoff Group holds its own in a difficult market environment
147th financial year of 2023 closed with sales of 809 million euros
Moderate growth despite challenging framework conditions
Thanks to our broad product range and international orientation, we achieved an annual turnover of 809 million euros in 2023. This represents an increase of around 3.3 percent over the previous year (2022: sales of 783 million euros). Almost 3,400 employees now work for our Group around the world.
International orientation as key
“Despite difficult market conditions worldwide, we were able to achieve moderate growth for our group of companies”, says Michael W. Böllhoff. “This is essentially due to our broad product and service portfolio as well as our international company network – with our own locations in 26 countries on 5 continents”.
Wilhelm A. Böllhoff adds: “It is especially noteworthy that Germany did not contribute to this growth. There is a pressing need for improvements of the much-discussed framework conditions in our country as well a need for more courage, confidence and trust in our own and overall economic strength, also when it comes to creating innovations.”
In 2023, the most important drivers of growth for Böllhoff Group’s sales were India, Mexico and Türkiye. For the first time in many years, China did not contribute to our growth, largely due to currency impacts.
Growth in the aviation sector
Looking at Böllhoff’s individual customer groups, past investments in the expansion of the aviation business had a particularly positive effect. Since 2021, we acquired two French manufacturers of special fasteners for aerospace – SNEP SA based in Montbrison in June 2021, and Gillis Aerospace from Dieupentale in June 2022.
Demand from the automotive industry, however, remained subdued, characterized by uncertainty in view of the ongoing structural changes in the industry.
»"A positive for Böllhoff looking forward is that we are already present in all types of drive systems as well as in the chassis of many different cars."
»"Sales in all other industries remained mostly stable. Here we benefit from the fact that our joining technology is present in virtually all industry sectors – from renewable energy generation to metal processing, from rail vehicles to mechanical engineering."
Outlook for 2024
The outlook for 2024 is difficult and uncertainty remains high. Many markets are in transition: Companies in Böllhoff Group’s customer segments are reducing capacity in some cases or relocating them to other countries.
“We are therefore continuing to work on improving our productivity and processes, in order to remain an all-round competent partner for joining technology for our customers,” says Michael W. Böllhoff. “We are also continuing to invest in the company, despite the difficult overall economic conditions – in 2024 this means topics related to digitalisation as well as in the training and further education of our employees,” adds Wilhelm A. Böllhoff.
The Böllhoff Education Campus in Bielefeld-Brackwede is scheduled for completion in autumn 2024. We are investing around 5 million euros in the 1,600-square-meter training and further education centre for apprentices, students and employees. Construction work on the foundation and cellar of the new building is currently underway at our company headquarters around Archimedesstrasse.
We also continue to invest in our own infrastructure internationally. In keeping with our approach of customer proximity worldwide, we are building our first production facility in Türkiye in 2024. The commissioning of the factory in Izmir is planned for the beginning of 2025, bringing the number of Böllhoff production facilities worldwide to 14.
