“Over the coming years, we want to rank among the top three providers of core products based on market share in the industry. We also aim to grow faster than the market. In the past year, we have proven that this is possible,” said Lehner. Within the framework of the “Strategy 2022” roadmap, the Group has set itself the goal of significantly exceeding the €2 billion revenue mark in the medium term and achieving an EBIT margin of over 11%. It aims to gradually reduce net working capital to below 30% of revenue.
The Group’s “Strategy 2022” roadmap also aims to capitalise on megatrends. “We firmly believe that alternative drive technologies will play an important role in future. This trend is being accelerated not only by changes in legal regulations, but also by rising demand from the market as the compelling ergonomics, environment, health and safety benefits of electric motors resonate with more and more users. Our developers are working on numerous new developments that will open up major opportunities for us to play a leading role in shaping the future of light and compact equipment. Our goal is to offer a genuine zero-emissions alternative in each of our core product groups,” explains Lehner. Digitalisation is another megatrend shaping product development, production, sales and service. Topics such as augmented and virtual reality have become increasingly important in recent years. State-of-the-art technologies are already being used for product development and for optimizing production activities. Digital solut
ions will also change sales and service activities across the industry, enabling providers to deliver more benefits to customers.
The Group is optimistic about 2018. “Our markets are currently intact and forecasts give us every reason to be confident. The year also got off to a great start for us. We expect revenue to amount to between €1.65 and €1.7 billion. This represents an increase of 8 - 11% relative to 2017. We also expect the EBIT margin to improve to between 9 and 10%,” added Lehner.