Business development 2009
The global decline in demand in the automotive industry has meant that our decades of growth were checked in fiscal 2009: whereas we posted a fall in sales of up to 16% in Europe and North America over the year, revenues in Asia surged by almost 50%.
Three quarters of plunging demand were followed by a turnaround which saw customer call orders rise again in the final quarter of 2009. As a result, sales revenues in fiscal 2009 were around 2.6 billion euros, a year-on-year drop of 8%. The Drives Business Division acquired in 2008 made a major contribution to the fact that the decline in sales was low compared with the rest of the industry. We thus surpassed our objective of attaining the sales level of 2007.
In 2009 we invested some 150 million euros in building our technological expertise. We used a total of 10% of our business volume to develop new products and production methods and on information technology and personnel development.
Three quarters of plunging demand were followed by a turnaround which saw customer call orders rise again in the final quarter of 2009. As a result, sales revenues in fiscal 2009 were around 2.6 billion euros, a year-on-year drop of 8%. The Drives Business Division acquired in 2008 made a major contribution to the fact that the decline in sales was low compared with the rest of the industry. We thus surpassed our objective of attaining the sales level of 2007.
In 2009 we invested some 150 million euros in building our technological expertise. We used a total of 10% of our business volume to develop new products and production methods and on information technology and personnel development.
