In recent years, we have invested a high double-digit million-euro amount in the new construction, expansion and upgrading of our locations in the US, Germany and Croatia. Today, we have state-of-the-art manufacturing and attractive office buildings according to the latest New Work concepts. This not only gives us a competitive advantage in manufacturing, greater independence from suppliers and supply chains and thus a more stable production structure, but also helps us to attract highly qualified and motivated employees.
The Tyre Technology division achieved significant sales growth of 11 % in the 2022 financial year. This growth is attributable equally to all product areas, although the macroeconomic stress factors in the automotive industry remained high. Despite the significant increase, the pre-crisis level could not yet be fully regained because the supply chain problems eased only late in the year and a large part of the order backlog could not (yet) be sold in the 2022 financial. The division is therefore entering the new financial year with a record order backlog.
The automotive industry and with it the tyre industry have been undergoing fundamental change for several years. With the transition to electromobility, the requirements for car tyres have changed significantly. The issue of sustainability is also becoming more and more important. HF’s research and development activities take these changing customer needs into account, for example, through the development of energy-optimised machines and digital solution approaches using apps to monitor production processes. The division works closely with Possehl Digital on the topics of data management and data analysis.
