maxon motor Group: A difficult year well-mastered

maxon motor Group increases 2012 revenue again

The maxon motor Group looks back on a successful business year 2012. In spite of modest market development, high commodity prices and the strong Swiss franc, maxon increased its revenue to CHF 360.5 million (+6.2%) in comparison to the previous year. The cash flow remained practically unchanged at CHF 36.9 million. At the end of 2012, the company employed 2,077 employees (+58) in Sachseln (Switzerland), Sexau (Germany), Veszprém (Hungary) and at the new location in Sejong (South Korea). The investments in research and development, which represent approx. 10% of the total revenue, reached a new record value. In 2012, maxon introduced a completely new DCX motor and gearhead series, with the option of configuring and ordering motors, gearheads and encoders directly online. As the market development is currently difficult to predict, maxon is assuming a 2013 revenue similar to 2012.

“In the past ten years, we have doubled the revenue to CHF 360 million,” said Karl-Walter Braun at the annual media conference. The strong Swiss franc continues to be a problem for the company. On the other hand, there has been some relief regarding the prices for magnets containing rare earths. Where generating revenue is concerned, medical technology has become the strongest field, with a share of 45%, followed by industrial automation and technology (approx. 25%). “The fields of industrial automation and aerospace technology have shown positive development. The project pipeline is full and promising,” reported Karl-Walter Braun.

To keep up with the growth, the maxon motor Group has invested approx. CHF 35 million in the infrastructure. In Hungary, a new factory was bought and in South Korea, a new production site was set up. The US headquarters was expanded to include a prototyping building and in Sexau, a new manufacturing hall for special gearheads is close to completion.

Revenue by world regions - strong regional differences
North America has shown great growth with medical technology as the driving force along with a significant increase in aerospace applications. The revenue also increased in Europe, although the north showed stronger development than the south, which is suffering from the debt crisis. With the integration of long-time sales partner, Kwapil & Co., the eastern European countries Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic are now being served directly from Vienna.

The development in Asia was positive, but there were significant regional differences. The strongest regions included South Korea, India and China, which however showed a markedly more modest growth than in the years before. In Japan, a country that is traditionally difficult for foreign providers, maxon was able to keep the revenue stable. At home, in Switzerland, the market was very robust and continued to grow thanks to medical technology and the industrial applications.

High innovative strength
“Almost every tenth franc that we earn in sales goes into design,” said Karl-Walter Braun. The biggest and most important challenge for our two development centers in Sachseln and Sexau was the successful launch of the next generation of DCX drives, a completely new motor and gearhead line. To manufacture these motors and gearheads, maxon has developed and produced new, flexible production equipment. “Also new for us and a first in the industry is our new CTO system (configure to order). On a computer or an iPad, our customers can select from a diverse range of options to assemble their own combination of motor, gearhead, encoder, and cable,” said Karl-Walter Braun. The motor, with all documentation, is shipped within 11 days. During configuration, the customer sees the price change resulting from each step.

Careful look towards the future
The personnel force of the maxon motor Group has grown moderately. In comparison to the previous year, 58 new jobs have been created. Today, the group employs a total of 2,077 employees. The most important sales markets do not exhibit a uniform trend in 2013. While there are interesting projects in the USA and the future business development there is being rated as positive, Europe is stagnating, except the important sales market Germany. “In Asia, China is growing again. South Korea is doing well, whereas Japan remains difficult,” said Karl-Walter Braun. Due to the different signals, maxon expects the 2013 revenue to be on the same level as that of the previous year.