Schaan (FL), January 24, 2017 – In its 2016 financial year, the Hilti Group achieved sales growth of +5.7 percent to CHF 4.6 billion in a challenging environment. In local currencies, sales were up +5.3 percent. After adjusting for the divestment of US-based solar affiliate Unirac, sales in Swiss Francs have increased by +7.1 percent.
The Hilti Group has generated broad-based sales growth again in 2016. The development in North America is particularly noteworthy where Hilti showed a strong performance in a consistently dynamic construction market (+11.6% in local currencies, excluding the Unirac effect). The European region was up +6.2%, with Southern European markets displaying growing momentum. As a result of the persistent economic crisis in Brazil, the Latin American region was slightly below the previous year’s performance (‑1.2%). Continued sales increases were achieved in the regions of Eastern Europe / Middle East / Africa (+5.6%) and Asia/Pacific (+3.3%).
“These figures prove that our major investments made over the past few years are now materializing. Sales growth was particularly spurred by our enhanced R&D activities as well as the further expansion of our sales capacity. Thus, we are happy to look back on 2016 with satisfaction,” concludes CEO Christoph Loos. On expectations for 2017, he said: “Both the market and currency environments will remain challenging given the large number of unsolved global issues. We are confident we will outperform the market in 2017 once again. In order to achieve this, we will continue to invest in our products, services and software and further expand our sales team.”
