Following the decline in sales in the difficult 2020 financial year due to the pandemic, growth in the 2021 financial year significantly exceeded the forecast: Sick 's sales increased by 16% to EUR 1964 million (2020: EUR 1700 million). In addition, incoming orders increased by 34% to EUR 2321 million (2020: EUR 1726 million). With the 44% increase in EBIT, its share of sales also rose to 10% (EBIT margin 2020: 8%). The previous year's consolidated net profit was exceeded: At 148 million euros, the company achieved a 46% higher consolidated net profit than in the previous year (2020: 101 million euros).

Markus Vatter, member of the Sick Management Board and responsible for Controlling, Finance and IT.

© Sick

The course of business in 2021 continued to be characterized by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, and manufacturing companies in particular had to react to disruptions in supply chains due to a lack of shipping containers, factory and port closures, low availability of materials and political and weather-related logistical bottlenecks. However, despite this difficult macroeconomic situation, Sick's business performance was positive overall; catch-up effects from the previous year also led to an improvement in the business situation.

In the home market of Germany, sales also reached a new record of EUR 326 million after a pandemic-related decline in the previous year (2020: EUR 284 million). According to the company, the development in the factory automation business area was particularly pleasing. However, the forecast development was exceeded in all business areas.

Sales gains were also increased in the global markets in 2021. The EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa) outperformed the previous year with sales growth of 12.5% to € 677 million (2020: € 601 million). This positive development is reflected in almost all countries in this region.

A larger increase can be seen in North, Central and South America (Americas). Sales were once again characterized by growth in the logistics automation sector in North America and amounted to EUR 450 million in 2021, which represents an increase of 16.2% compared to the previous year (2020: EUR 387 million).

The Asia-Pacific region surprised positively with a 19.6% increase in turnover. Here, too, growth clearly exceeded expectations: In the previous year, sales were still at 428 million euros; last year, 511 million euros were achieved. The sales trend in China was particularly positive at around +30%.