Josef Minster, CEO of the Schlemmer Group, is more than satisfied with the company’s performance: “We have been able to continuously grow our revenue and profits over the last three years and have made significant gains in all sectors. The ASEAN region was the strongest revenue driver in 2015. This can also be attributed to the two new plants opened in China and the Philippines and now full capacity utilisation in Vietnam. But North America, Eastern Europe (especially Romania) and Morocco also figured among the booming markets.”
Minster pointed to the accolade of Global Market Leader bestowed by the University of St. Gallen and the Akademie Deutscher Weltmarktführer (Academy of German Global Market Leaders) as a particular highlight of last year. “The accolade is a great honour for our company as it proves in accordance with transparent criteria that the Schlemmer Group is a successful company with world-leading technology and excellent performance.”
All things considered, Schlemmer’s management is fully satisfied with the current revenue and profit trends. “With our current results, we remain completely on target with our ONE SPIRIT 2020 roadmap developed two years ago – if not slightly ahead. Our strict adherence to our strategic concept again in 2015 is consistently paying off”, said Minster. “However, as a plastics processing company, we are also benefitting from the good overall economic situation and especially the still very low oil price. We are fully aware that this situation may change very quickly. It goes without saying that we are prepared for this.”
This is demonstrated in the case of Brazil, for example, where Schlemmer has had to contend with an unfavourable economic climate for a long time now. Even in economically weak Russia, Schlemmer has its own production site which closed the year in a highly profitable position in spite of the unfavourable conditions.
The Schlemmer Group remains committed to ambitious, growth-oriented objectives for the years ahead. Some of the measures included in a range of central projects under the ONE SPIRIT 2020 roadmap include tripling investment in research and development over the coming years and achieving annual revenue of almost € 500 million in 2020. Josef Minster is currently unreservedly positive about the company’s further development: "We have every reason to look to the future full of confidence. We have already surpassed our set targets in the first two quarters of 2016.”