Plansee Group Increases Sales In The Last Fiscal Year

The Group continued to strengthen its position globally in the last fiscal year, and completed an investment program worth a total of 400 million euros. “Stable sales in the first half of the year and the acquisition of GTP ensured that the Plansee Group continued on the path to long-term growth in 2008”, Michael Schwarzkopf, chairman of the Plansee Group’s executive board, said during a press conference to announce the annual figures. The Group’s consolidated sales grew by 2 percent to 1.1 billion euros, with half of its total sales coming from Europe and the other half from the Asian and American markets in equal parts.
 
According to Schwarzkopf, the fact that products launched within the last five years accounted for almost 30 percent of the Plansee Group’s total sales was a positive sign. “This is a proof that we are well positioned on product level and well prepared for the future” says Schwarzkopf.
 
In the 2008/09 fiscal year, the Plansee Group completed an investment program which took place over the course of several years, and was worth a total of approximately 400 million euros. Considering the last fiscal year alone, the Group made a record investment of 131 million euros, equivalent to approximately 12 percent of sales. Key investments included optimizing the value chain for flat products with production stages that come before and after the new hot rolling mill, building a new hard-metal recycling plant, introducing new production technologies, building and further developing focused production lines in Spain, China, the USA and Austria, and expanding production capacity for key products.