Media / Press Releases
Overall Group Sales Decline Slightly
"The Vorwerk group recorded total sales of DM 2.480 billion in 1999, 2.6 percent less than the figure for the previous year. Particularly in Germany, the company was faced with a difficult economic environment. The foreign markets made better progress, however, reporting sales growth of 2.2 percent. The balance-sheet result rose to DM 1.886 billion. At the end of 1999, the company held liquid funds amounting to DM 1.082 billion and showed a capital-to-assets ratio of 54 percent.
Direct Sales, one of the company’s Mainstays
Once again, a mainstay of the company proved to be the company’s "direct-sales" division, which comprises the segments: household appliances, Thermomix and fitted kitchens.
All in all, Vorwerk is dissatisfied with its results and the developments of the past financial year. The general discussion about the new statutory framework for compulsory pension insurance of the self-employed has greatly unsettled direct-sales staff and, as a result, the company has lost ten percent of its sales advisers in Germany.
In addition to this, management capacity was largely bound up in the intensive deliberations concerning this subject and its effects on the Vorwerk distribution system.
As a consequence of this as well as general buyers’ resistance throughout Central Europe, overall sales in the household-appliances segment fell 5.4 percent to DM 1.414 billion.
Vorwerk expects to win back some of its sales advisers in the current financial year. The Pulilux, an entirely new kind of appliance on the German market designed for hard floor coverings, is sure to contribute toward further reviving business. The group will continue consolidating its leading position on the vacuum-cleaner market with the innovative Kobold System 131 launched in 1999 – a combined upright and floor-type vacuum cleaner.
In the year under review, the overall sales figure for Vorwerk fitted kitchens was down 7.5 percent to DM 89 million. The chief reason for this was the division’s dependence on the German floor-care appliance distribution organization for obtaining addresses.
Thermomix, the multifunctional kitchen appliance, continues on its course of growth. The sales figures reported by the various national organizations rose in 1999 by 13.5 percent to DM 327 million. The excellent growth rates in Italy (17.7 percent to DM 113 million) and Spain (22.6 percent to DM 78.8 million) deserve a special mention and business progressed highly satisfactorily in eastern Europe, too.
International Markets Making Headway
The share contributed by foreign companies to the group’s total sales rose in 1999 by two points to 47 percent. Most of this growth was contributed by the Thermomix sales companies in the core countries, Spain and Italy, with the young markets, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and China, boosting their sales by a total of 4.9 percent.
The oldest foreign Vorwerk direct-sales company, Vorwerk Folletto in Italy, generated sales of DM 446.8 million, a figure minimally lower than that of the previous year. Business in China, the world’s largest growth market, will be expanded further. A main focus of the corporate strategy for the current year is to continue investment in new markets. Market tests in the United States have proved extremely promising. Market-entry studies are presently being conducted in Australia and Asia, and a third is in the pipeline for Taiwan.
Services Clearly Come up Trumps
The Vorwerk subsidiary HECTAS has made great advances on its way to becoming an European service brand and succeeded in maintaining its place among the ten largest facility-management service providers in Germany and the Netherlands. Sales were upped by 4.8 percent to DM 197.9. The change in the legal status of the minimally employed (those in so-called 630-mark jobs) had a negative effect in Germany and resulted in 20 percent of jobs being lost.
In the data-processing sector, ZEDA operates in a favorable market and competitive environment. Sales rose by 35.2 percent over the previous year to a total of DM 72.6 million. This market is also expected to display high growth rates and great dynamic development in the future.
The unconsolidated akf companies operating in the leasing and financing market have made excellent progress and continued on their growth course of recent years. New business in credit, installment-plan and leasing financing rose by approx. 10 percent to DM 488 million.
In a harsh economic environment, Vorwerk Teppichwerke (Hamelin) could not fend off a fall in sales, though it was less pronounced than that of the overall market. Sales shrank by 6.4 percent to DM 187.6 million. A new marketing system designed to turn the tide of business in the future has since been implemented.
In the special retail division, Brugman Fitted Kitchens produced differing results. While growth was maintained in the Netherlands with sales rising by 13.5 percent to DM 150 million, sales figures were down in Germany by 20 percent to DM 58.4 million.
Vorwerk has meanwhile discarded its original idea of also selling kitchens on the basis of a branch-outlet concept which would feature elements of direct sales. The group plans instead to concentrate on direct selling to the end consumer and will therefore bring Brugman together with a new partner whose strategy, unlike that of Vorwerk, focuses predominantly on the stationary retail outlet.
Moderate Growth Expected for 2000
In the current financial year, Vorwerk is anticipating a slight increase in sales of one percent to DM 2.5 billion. This will be achieved, above all, thanks to further growth from our foreign companies.
Vorwerk Increases Sales Abroad
Overall Group Sales Decline Slightly
"The Vorwerk group recorded total sales of DM 2.480 billion in 1999, 2.6 percent less than the figure for the previous year. Particularly in Germany, the company was faced with a difficult economic environment. The foreign markets made better progress, however, reporting sales growth of 2.2 percent. The balance-sheet result rose to DM 1.886 billion. At the end of 1999, the company held liquid funds amounting to DM 1.082 billion and showed a capital-to-assets ratio of 54 percent.
Direct Sales, one of the company’s Mainstays
Once again, a mainstay of the company proved to be the company’s "direct-sales" division, which comprises the segments: household appliances, Thermomix and fitted kitchens.
All in all, Vorwerk is dissatisfied with its results and the developments of the past financial year. The general discussion about the new statutory framework for compulsory pension insurance of the self-employed has greatly unsettled direct-sales staff and, as a result, the company has lost ten percent of its sales advisers in Germany.
In addition to this, management capacity was largely bound up in the intensive deliberations concerning this subject and its effects on the Vorwerk distribution system.
As a consequence of this as well as general buyers’ resistance throughout Central Europe, overall sales in the household-appliances segment fell 5.4 percent to DM 1.414 billion.
Vorwerk expects to win back some of its sales advisers in the current financial year. The Pulilux, an entirely new kind of appliance on the German market designed for hard floor coverings, is sure to contribute toward further reviving business. The group will continue consolidating its leading position on the vacuum-cleaner market with the innovative Kobold System 131 launched in 1999 – a combined upright and floor-type vacuum cleaner.
In the year under review, the overall sales figure for Vorwerk fitted kitchens was down 7.5 percent to DM 89 million. The chief reason for this was the division’s dependence on the German floor-care appliance distribution organization for obtaining addresses.
Thermomix, the multifunctional kitchen appliance, continues on its course of growth. The sales figures reported by the various national organizations rose in 1999 by 13.5 percent to DM 327 million. The excellent growth rates in Italy (17.7 percent to DM 113 million) and Spain (22.6 percent to DM 78.8 million) deserve a special mention and business progressed highly satisfactorily in eastern Europe, too.
International Markets Making Headway
The share contributed by foreign companies to the group’s total sales rose in 1999 by two points to 47 percent. Most of this growth was contributed by the Thermomix sales companies in the core countries, Spain and Italy, with the young markets, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and China, boosting their sales by a total of 4.9 percent.
The oldest foreign Vorwerk direct-sales company, Vorwerk Folletto in Italy, generated sales of DM 446.8 million, a figure minimally lower than that of the previous year. Business in China, the world’s largest growth market, will be expanded further. A main focus of the corporate strategy for the current year is to continue investment in new markets. Market tests in the United States have proved extremely promising. Market-entry studies are presently being conducted in Australia and Asia, and a third is in the pipeline for Taiwan.
Services Clearly Come up Trumps
The Vorwerk subsidiary HECTAS has made great advances on its way to becoming an European service brand and succeeded in maintaining its place among the ten largest facility-management service providers in Germany and the Netherlands. Sales were upped by 4.8 percent to DM 197.9. The change in the legal status of the minimally employed (those in so-called 630-mark jobs) had a negative effect in Germany and resulted in 20 percent of jobs being lost.
In the data-processing sector, ZEDA operates in a favorable market and competitive environment. Sales rose by 35.2 percent over the previous year to a total of DM 72.6 million. This market is also expected to display high growth rates and great dynamic development in the future.
The unconsolidated akf companies operating in the leasing and financing market have made excellent progress and continued on their growth course of recent years. New business in credit, installment-plan and leasing financing rose by approx. 10 percent to DM 488 million.
In a harsh economic environment, Vorwerk Teppichwerke (Hamelin) could not fend off a fall in sales, though it was less pronounced than that of the overall market. Sales shrank by 6.4 percent to DM 187.6 million. A new marketing system designed to turn the tide of business in the future has since been implemented.
In the special retail division, Brugman Fitted Kitchens produced differing results. While growth was maintained in the Netherlands with sales rising by 13.5 percent to DM 150 million, sales figures were down in Germany by 20 percent to DM 58.4 million.
Vorwerk has meanwhile discarded its original idea of also selling kitchens on the basis of a branch-outlet concept which would feature elements of direct sales. The group plans instead to concentrate on direct selling to the end consumer and will therefore bring Brugman together with a new partner whose strategy, unlike that of Vorwerk, focuses predominantly on the stationary retail outlet.
Moderate Growth Expected for 2000
In the current financial year, Vorwerk is anticipating a slight increase in sales of one percent to DM 2.5 billion. This will be achieved, above all, thanks to further growth from our foreign companies.
