Bürkle finishes short-time work and grows by 30 per cent

Robert Bürkle GmbH starts with good news into the second half of the year: already in June the line manufacturer finished short-time work in all business units having lasted 13 months in total. The reason is the continuously increasing receipt of orders since beginning of the year which culminates in 42 million Euros by 30^th June 2010. This order value is three times higher than in the previous year and also higher than in the first two quarters of the booming years 2007 and 2008.

„Consequently, the planned sales target of more than 85 million Euros for 2010 is realistic to achieve“, says Bürkle chief Hans-Joachim Bender. After the economic crisis in 2009 this would mean a gain in turnover of more than 30 per cent. Bender expects to be able to follow the record year 2008 in which the turnover was 115 million Euros, in 2012 at the latest.

An important business sector of the specialist for press and coating technologies is still the business unit “surfaces” which contributes 35 per cent of the total turnover, subsumed in the turnovers of the derived timber board, glass, automotive and graphical industry. These industries finish substrates with liquid coatings or print them digitally on Bürkle machines. The latest development is a coating line being used in the advertising industry. Here Bürkle adapts a technology of business unit “surfaces” which has been developed over decades.
Also in the press technology there are currently developed some new innovations.

Another novelty is the successes of the subsidiary Fiber Engineering GmbH in Karlsruhe. The company will deliver the first order to the USA this summer, a line for the manufacture of recyclable fibre moulded parts for the automotive industry.

30 per cent are earned by the pioneer of multi-opening technology in the recent business unit “photovoltaics”. More than 60 sold lines of the brand Ypsator and single-opening laminators have been recorded since market entry three years ago. In the third business unit “plastic cards and multilayer” Bürkle gained 15 per cent of the turnover, whereas the first large order in the amount of two million Euros for complete card body manufacturing equipment has been delivered to Mexico since the product portfolio of PCU was taken over in 2008. The manufacturing line produces ID cards. Bender is also pleased that more and more Asian customers are currently placing orders for lines for the manufacture of multilayers. “Our activities and investments at our site in Shanghai are paying off”, says the managing partner.

Finally the sector service and spare parts with 20 per cent contributes to an increasing extent that Bürkle comes off strongly of the crisis. This trend proves the importance of the installation and maintenance business apart from sole selling of a line, since: “Customers want to produce effectively and without standstills in order to save costs and stay competitive”, clarifies Bender.

In 2010 Bürkle wants to keep the number of employees at 480 at the sites in Freudenstadt and Mastholte. “We have not dismissed anybody during the crisis and we would like to achieve good results with our well-cooperating team in 2010”, explains Bender who is engaged in the managing board of the VDMA sector photovoltaics and wood-processing machines. For its innovative processes and developments Bürkle is rewarded with the Top 100 Award again this year.

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