At the end of its fiscal year 2020/21 on 30 June 2021, the Trumpf Group — a high-tech company offering manufacturing solutions in the fields of machine tools and laser technology — recorded a slight increase in sales revenues (0.5%) to 3.50 billion euros (fiscal year 2019/20: 3.48 billion euros), although order intake value increased significantly by 19.7% to 3.9 billion euros — a record level for the company (fiscal year 2019/20: 3.3 billion euros). At 370 million euros, the Group’s operating earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) grew ‘very positively’ by 19.5% compared to the fiscal year 2019/20 (309 million euros).

Despite the low level of sales revenues in the first half of the year, Trumpf was able to ‘stabilise earnings’ by increasing productivity, changing the product mix and consistently cutting non-personnel costs. In the second half of the year, earnings increased significantly as a result of higher sales revenues. Also, due to investment restraint, the company achieved an EBIT margin of 10.5% (previous year: 8.9%).

Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller, president of Trumpf’s group management board, said: “Owing to our systematic crisis management, Trumpf managed to survive the pandemic well. Due to a strong rise in demand, we entered the new fiscal year with an unexpectedly high order intake.

“Nevertheless, there will still be a lot of uncertainty over the coming months with regard to how chip shortages in global supply chains, inflation, and increasing energy costs and their effect on transportation costs and transportation capacity will affect our business.”

With sales revenues of 579 million euros, Germany is still the largest single market, closely followed by China — the largest single market in Asia. Having experienced weak growth the previous year, sales revenues in China grew by 50.7% to 525 million euros. The third-largest market for Trumpf was the USA with 485 million euros.

In fourth place was the Netherlands with 460 million euros, due to its EUV (extreme ultraviolet) business with the client ASML — one of the world's leading manufacturers of chip-making equipment.
The number of employees at Trumpf grew over the course of the reporting period, with the growth areas of EUV and electronics in particular seeing the creation of new jobs.

At the reporting date of 30-6-21, the company employed 14,767 people globally (previous year: 14,325). In Germany, 7,602 people were employed, with 4,400 of them at the Group’s headquarters in Ditzingen. In the year under review, 517 young people completed a training course or ‘co-op work-study programme’, resulting in a training ratio of 3.6% — the same as the previous year.

Due to the economic uncertainties resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, investment was scaled back: the company invested a total of 145 million euros in plots and buildings, technical facilities, and operating and office equipment.

This is 25.2% less than in the previous year (194 million euros). Trumpf remained a highly research-intensive company in the fiscal year 2020/21, with research and development costs of 382 million euros slightly higher than the previous year’s figure (377 million euros). In relation to sales revenues, the development cost ratio increased to 10.9% (previous year: 10.8%).