Endress+Hauser to "cope well" in 2009, says CEO

Basel, Switzerland - Endress+Hauser "can cope well, even with such a difficult year as 2009,” CEO, Klaus Endress said at the group’s recent annual media conference in Basel, Switzerland. Despite the global economic crisis, he added that the global instrumentation supplier had achieved strong growth and made significant investments in 2008.

Net sales grew 8.8% to Euro1.211 billion while operating earnings (EBIT) rose 7% to Euro156.5 million. Business developed strongly in the oil & gas, power, energy, shipbuilding and renewable energies industries not only through instrumentation for process engineering, but also through services and automation solutions, said a compay statement.

The company said it had developed strongly in the Middle East, managed stable growth in Europe, but lost momentum in Asia due to the exchange rate and the downturn in North America.

However, Endress admitted that the global economic crisis had now reached the automation industry. At the end of Q1 09, E+H said its orders were 15% below target and sales for this year were likely to come in about 5% lower than in 2008. This, it noted, would be significantly better than the performance expected for the automation industry as a whole.

This year, E+H is concentrating on the 85% of its business that is performing well. The company went on to identify the oil & gas, renewable energies and agrochemicals as performing well, while it also noted robust demand in the water/wastewater and power & energy sectors.

Against this, the company is expecting difficult market conditions in the chemicals, petchems, primaries, metallurgical and pulp & paper industries, while the life sciences and food & beverage industries are likely to deliver just modest growth.  

“Endress+Hauser has always emerged strengthened from difficult times,” declared CEO Endress. “We will do everything in our power to ensure that we succeed this time too. We have a wealth of excellent products and are working at full strength on the development of new innovations.”

In 2008, the group invested more than Euro106.8 million - Euro12 million more than the year before. It also reported spending Euro88.8 million on R&D - 17.5% more than in 2007 - and the creation of 579 new jobs worldwide.

In terms of human resources, E+H said it is using spare capacity for training and reorganisation, cutting back overtime and reducing workloads. The company is also implementing shorter working hours, where necessary, but said its primary aim is to retain all employees and will continue to recruit graduates in engineering and to train up specialists, offer internships and employ students.

"On no account will we carelessly abandon strategic positions. We are continuing to invest in the latest production technology and are focusing on reinforcing our sales and service network," said Endress. We will need all hands on deck when the wind changes direction."

Endress+Hauser is a global supplier of measurement instrumentation, technologies and services for industrial process engineering. Its portfolio covers sensors, instruments, systems and services for level, flow, pressure and temperature measurement as well as liquid analysis and data acquisition products.

The company has over 8,000 employees worldwide, serving in the chemicals, food & beverage, water/wastewater, life science, oil & gas, energy, primaries, pulp & paper and shipbuilding industries.