Connecting challenging and critical applications with reliable solutions, ensuring lifetime data integrity and power transmission – today and beyond.
Scroll to find out more
Reduced momentum and lower profitability in Industry market segment
In the Industry market segment, the continued depletion of inventories at customers over the entire reporting year had an impact on the awarding of new orders. Order intake declined by 16.9 % to CHF 258.1 million (PY CHF 310.5 million). Organically, net sales remained around the previous year’s level. Unadjusted, there was a 4.3 % decline to CHF 285.3 million (PY CHF 298.0 million). Compared to 2022, development in the subsegments was completely reversed with aerospace and defense reporting double-digit percentage growth while the three other subsegments, test and measurement, general industrial and high power charging, experienced a decline in the double-digit range. Demand for high power charging experienced a distinct decline in the US market due to uncertainties about the future charging standard. The decline in the EBIT margin to 16.4 % (PY 21.3 %) can be explained by a change in the product mix in most subsegments.
“The segment benefited from the positive development in aerospace and defense and our consistent focus on refining our solutions in recent years. Rising defense budgets also contributed to this development. Development proved more challenging for the other industrial subsegments, which were impacted, in part, by customer overstocking, the general economic slowdown and delays in infrastructure development. Profitability did not quite reach the high of the previous year but was maintained at an attractive level.”
Reto Bolt, COO Industrysegment
Our solutions for the Industry market
Broad base of the segment helps to mitigate downturn – geopolitical tensions increase focus on defense capability
Following the prior-year decline, the aerospace and defense growth initiative picked up well in the reporting year. The impact of increased defense budgets slowly began to be felt and the growing importance of communication solutions within the armed forces was borne out.
In the high power charging subsegment, the further buildout of high power charging points only developed at a very slow pace across Europe and Asia. In the previously booming US market, regulatory uncertainties temporarily halted market momentum: partly, due to lengthy negotiations between vehicle manufacturers and charging infrastructure operators on the interface standard and also due to state investment incentives linked to local value creation targets.
The test and measurement core market, whose cycles are known to be closely linked to those of the communications market, also reported lower volumes on account of this.
