Industry: The Würth retail group is growing strongly

Industry
Retail group Würth is growing strongly

The trading group Würth was able to grow. Photo: Marijan Murat / dpa

© dpa-infocom GmbH

Regardless of the Corona crisis, the Würth Group is expanding its business. However, the specialist in assembly and fastening material cannot deliver some products as they actually want.

The Würth retail group saw strong growth in sales and operating profit last year. “Despite Corona, we have come into a very stable situation,” said the spokesman for the group management, Robert Friedmann, on Thursday of the German press agency.

In the case of wood screws and some other products, however, the ability to deliver is under pressure. The family company from Künzelsau sees itself as a world market leader in the manufacture and sale of assembly and fastening materials.

According to preliminary figures, group sales rose by 18.5 percent to a record EUR 17.1 billion. Friedmann called the increase “historical” – you have to go back to the 1980s to find such a plus. Around three fifths of sales came from abroad, the remaining two fifths from Germany.

The operating result (after interest, before taxes) has risen to 1.2 billion euros after 775 million euros in 2020, primarily due to the significant growth in sales. The company intends to announce the net profit when the balance sheet is presented in mid-May. The group with over 400 individual companies wants to grow further in the current year and increase sales in the order of eight to ten percent, said Friedmann.

According to a press release, own plants help to be comparatively independent of global supply chains. Around four fifths of the goods come from Europe. In addition to wood screws, delivery bottlenecks at Würth affect certain protective gloves for the medical sector and some types of plastic. The number of employees grew by a good 4,000 last year to more than 83,000.

dpa

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