Susanne Kunschert, Managing Partner of Pilz, described the 2023 financial year as "challenging". It was characterized by a shortage of components in the first quarter, a significant slowdown in incoming orders due to full inventories in the second quarter and a significant economic slowdown from mid-2023. Nevertheless, the family-owned company was able to achieve the highest turnover in its 75-year history. Turnover increased by 7.3% to 433 million euros. The specialist for safe automation recorded growth in the industrialized countries of Germany, Italy, Korea, Switzerland, Austria, the UK and Turkey. India recorded the highest percentage increase.

The export share fell slightly by 1.1 percentage points to 75.4%. This development is attributable to the above-average growth in Germany, where Pilz achieved a turnover of over 100 million euros for the first time. Together with Italy, Germany is considered the largest manufacturing country for food and packaging machinery; a market that has grown internationally due to coronavirus. Within the Pilz portfolio, Kunschert particularly highlighted the rapidly developing areas of safe small controllers PNOZmulti, sensor technology and services. In Brazil, for example, Pilz was able to acquire the largest single order for services in the company's history. This includes consulting, risk assessment and a safety concept for an industrial company at 32 sites with more than 30,000 machines.

In April, Pilz adapted its service business and launched 'Industrial Security Consulting Services', or ISCS for short. New regulations such as the EU Machinery Regulation, NIS 2 and the Cyber Resilience Act require companies in Europe to integrate security into their products, systems and infrastructures. The aim of the modular service offering is to provide companies with an indication of their vulnerability and impact on the basis of these regulations, as well as to implement legal changes to ensure CE compliance. Thomas Pilz emphasized the importance of security once again: "If I am not in control of my data, then the safety of my employees is also at stake: without security there is no safety and without safety there is no accident protection for people! So a digital transformation of the production process cannot succeed without security."