With double-digit sales growth, the Würth Group is once again on track towards record results

• Sales volume increases to EUR 19.9 billion
• Operating result goes up to EUR 1.6 billion
• High equity ensures stability in challenging times
• Automation strategy “Logistics 2030 Vision” safeguards growth targets for the Group

With a sales share of 39.4 percent, Germany remains the most important single market in the Würth Group. The German companies achieved a sales increase of 13.1 percent. Reasons for the positive development are both the stability of the individual business models and the very high product availability. The Electrical Wholesale Unit (+24.8 percent) and Würth Elektronik Group (+22.0 percent) were particularly successful. At 21.4 percent, Division Wood achieved the highest growth among the divisions of the Würth Line, followed by Division Industry at 20.9 percent. Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG, the Group’s parent company and largest single company, increased its sales volume by 10.5 percent, including intra-Group sales. The companies outside Germany also reported a successful fiscal year with a sales increase of 19.4 percent. The top performers can be found in the Americas, Southern and Eastern Europe.

E-business: customers continue to rely on digital procurement of goods

Apart from the more than 43,000 sales employees and more than 2,500 pick-up shops worldwide, e-business is one of the strategic growth areas of the Würth Group. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the procurement of goods via digital channels became an integral part of our customers’ order routine. This trend is reflected in sales: e-business accounted for sales of EUR 4.1 billion across the Group. The sales share amounted to a new maximum of 20.7 percent.

Strong growth requires strong logistics processes

The continuous growth of the Würth Group requires that the process structures grow as well. The Group’s strategy is therefore to exploit the full potential of digitalization and automation in order to also meet social challenges such as demographic change and the shortage of skilled workers. “On the one hand, our logistics robots improve productivity. On the other hand, they relieve our employees of physically demanding tasks. Automated processes enable us to supply our customers quickly and reliably. They appreciate the quality of our products and rightly expect the same from the availability of the ordered goods,” Friedmann said.

Important building blocks for the constant security of supply and thus relief for our customers even in challenging times were, on the one hand, the rental of additional pallet spaces. Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG alone accounted for more than 60,000 pallet spaces. On the other hand, Würth relied on the development of personnel and increased its inventory value by more than 70 percent over the last two years at a time when many other companies cut back. Friedmann emphasized that “the family business plays a crucial part here: It provides not only the necessary freedom for taking action and making decisions, but also the stability for such decisions.”

Würth creates global knowledge and implementation network in logistics

Würth Group experts from different countries form a so-called “Inno.Log panel” (innovations in logistics) and regularly exchange information about new technologies and standardized automation solutions in the field of logistics. The aim is to make these available to all Würth companies. “The advantage is that not every single one of our more than 400 companies has to find solutions to logistics issues. The panel evaluates preferred technologies and shares them with all Würth companies. This saves both time and costs and creates valuable synergy effects,” Friedmann explained.

“Logistics 2030 Vision” specifies automation strategy

For the strategic development of logistics, the Würth Group has set itself the goal of achieving an automation level of 75 percent by 2030 in the companies with the highest sales volumes. Friedmann emphasized: “This is not about replacing people. On the contrary, we continue to rely on our almost 12,000 logistics employees and are adding staff. We are striving for the perfect interplay of employees, robots, workplace health management and corporate growth in order to safeguard the future of the Würth Group.”

Pallet robots place packages from conveyor belts onto pallets and then ship them to customers.The pallet robot can handle about 8,000 packages per day with an average weight of 12 kilograms.

More than 2,000 new employees

The Würth Group hired 2,454 new employees in the 2022 fiscal year. The Group employs 85,637 people, 43,297 of whom work in the sales force. In Germany, the company has 26,113 employees.

High equity provides stability and confidence

In the past fiscal year, the Würth Group’s equity increased by 16.0 percent to EUR 7.9 billion. With this plus of EUR 1.1 billion, the equity ratio increased to 46.0 percent (2021: 45.2 percent). This good equity base has been the basis for consistently high financial stability for years, which creates confidence, especially in difficult times. The rating agency S&P Global confirmed the Würth Group’s “A/outlook stable” rating in 2022.

First sustainability report published by the Würth Group

In addition to the annual report, the Würth Group is publishing a sustainability report for the first time this year. Titled “Go”, the company presents its ecological and social key figures in a transparent manner in said report. The report is available online at www.wuerth.com.

About the Würth Group

The Würth Group is the global market leader in the development, production and sale of assembly and fastening materials. Other trading and production companies, known as the Allied Companies, operate in related business areas, ranging from electrical wholesale and electronics to financial services. The Group employs more than 85,000 employees in over 400 companies with more than 2,500 pick-up shops across 80 countries. The Group achieved sales of EUR 19.9 billion in the 2022 fiscal year. With 7,600 employees, Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG in Künzelsau is the largest single company in the Würth Group.