Bosch Rexroth achieved the highest turnover in the company's history in 2022: The Lohr am Main-based company increased its turnover by 14.1% to €7 billion compared to the 2021 financial year (2021: €6.2 billion). The company thus exceeded the previous record from 2019 by EUR 849 million. Order intake fell slightly by 2.1% to 7.3 billion euros. "In 2022, we continued Bosch Rexroth's strong growth trajectory under difficult conditions. We are further developing our range of services in hydraulics, electrification and factory automation and strengthening it through acquisitions - both with a view to future growth and the changing requirements of our customers. Bosch Rexroth is a reliable and innovative partner, even in challenging times," commented CEO Dr. Steffen Haack on the result.

Decline in sales in China

The key figures for the 2022 financial year.

© Bosch Rexroth

The Americas region contributed the largest jump in sales worldwide, with an increase of 34.8% to EUR 1.4 billion. Europe outside Germany achieved 2.4 billion euros (+16.5%). In Germany, sales rose by 11.3% to 1.4 billion euros.

Growth was lowest in Asia/Africa/Australia, where sales amounted to 1.8 billion euros. The reason: China, the largest market in the region and one of the largest markets for Bosch Rexroth overall, recorded a decline in sales of more than 9% due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. However, this was offset by growth in other regions.

Business in Russia was completely discontinued in the course of last year.

In addition to real growth, currency effects and price increases also had an impact on turnover. Bosch Rexroth was able to pass on some of the sharp increases in material, energy, logistics and wage costs to customers.

Investments in R&D and production

Bosch Rexroth also invested in research & development and the production network in 2022. The company invested around 388 million euros in R&D, which corresponds to around 5.5% of sales (2021: 344 million euros; 5.6%). This is the highest figure in the company's history. The focus was on digitalization, the electrification of mobile machinery with the eLION platform, factory automation with the Automation modular automation system and the autonomous mobile robot Active Shuttle, and industrial hydraulics with the H4U (Hydraulics for You) software platform.

Investments in the global production network with its 46 production sites increased by 53.1% to EUR 274 million (3.9% of sales). The funds were used to modernize existing locations in the form of investments in buildings, machinery and tools, as well as in the construction of new locations. These include, for example, the new plants in Querétaro (Mexico) and Charlotte (North Carolina, USA) in order to meet demand in North America with a strong regional supply chain.

In Slovenia, three existing sites are being merged into a new plant in Brnik to enable growth in Europe. In Germany, more than EUR 120 million was invested in office and logistics buildings, production and the modernization of the Lohr foundry. Outside Germany, the largest investments were made in Turkey and China.

According to the company, these measures improve the availability of products through a regionally balanced production network and sustainability, for example by optimizing production processes or due to shorter transport routes.

"Cautiously optimistic" in the current financial year

CFO Holger von Hebel: "We are cautiously optimistic for 2023. Slight sales growth in our existing business will be supplemented by sales from the acquired companies." The challenges remain: the war in Ukraine, restrictions in the availability of materials and transport capacities as well as uncertainties in the international trading environment. "This makes it all the more important to continuously improve our company. We are further strengthening our culture, which is characterized by agility and a focus on results, through numerous activities. In addition, we are intensifying digitalization in all parts of the company and placing sustainability even more strongly than before at the heart of our actions," says von Hebel.

Bosch Rexroth at the Hannover Messe 2023: Hall 6, Stand D26