Schaan (FL), January 22, 2016 – Sales generated by the Hilti Group in 2015 have grown in line with expectations: While sales in local currencies were increased by 5.8 percent, sales in Swiss Francs remained 2.5 percent below the level of the previous year.
2015 turned out to be a challenging year as a result of the massive appreciation of the Swiss Franc and volatile markets, especially in emerging countries. “Given these challenges, we are satisfied with our sales growth. We are obviously less pleased with the fact that we have lost more than 8 percentage points of sales after conversion into Swiss Francs,” says CEO Christoph Loos. Compared to 2014, overall sales declined by CHF 113 million to CHF 4,384 million.
In Europe, sales in local currencies have grown by 4.2 percent versus previous year, which is mostly due to positive trends in Northern Europe. After a number of difficult years, Hilti has moved back to slight growth in Southern Europe. Sales have risen substantially in North America (+10.2%) with the construction sector continuing to show solid growth. In Asia/Pacific and Latin America, sales were up 3.0 percent and 7.7 percent respectively over 2014. With a sales plus of 7.5 percent, Eastern Europe / Middle East / Africa has stayed on its growth trajectory.
Throughout 2015, Hilti continued to pursue its forward strategy and further invested in innovations and the development of distribution capacities. “As a result, we have succeeded in accelerating our sales growth over the past few months. We are determined to maintain this course in 2016 and expand our market shares,” added CEO Christoph Loos.
