As expected, 2014 was an year of two very different halves for German major HELLER. Development during the first six months was below average. The pick-up noted in the second half of the year exceeded forecasts in terms of both business volume and results. The 2014 order intake is also above plan with a correspondingly positive impact on the current financial year.
The increase in order intake noted by the German machine tool industry continued throughout 2014. On an annual basis, this resulted in a four per cent growth. In 2014, HELLER recorded a 35 per cent increase in orders received for a total volume of EUR 558.1 million, resulting in the second highest order inflow in the history of the group. In particular, project business with automotive customers contributed to growth with an increase of about 60 per cent on the previous year, so that the group was able to exceed forecasts for 2014.
The most substantial changes in the geographical distribution of order intake in 2014 were noted in overseas markets. Germany continues to hold the lion’s share, followed by the rest of Europe with 69 per cent (previous year 66 per cent) due to strong domestic automotive project business. At 23 per cent, North and South America are above the previous year (15 per cent). Here again, project business developed above average. Due to the development in China, Asia’s growth has slowed down significantly to eight per cent compared to the previous year’s 19 per cent.
Product range
In 2014, the focus remained on the expansion and modernisation of the product range, enabling the group to better serve its existing customers and to expand business into new target customer groups and industries, attracted by the traditional strengths of HELLER such as productivity, reliability and availability. At the same time, it continued working on the expansion and intensification of regional business.
The group’s current product spectrum of 4-axis and 5-axis machining centres and mill/turning centres enables machining of components of up to 10t in weight and 1,800 mm in height at high productivity and process dependability. The newly-added large machining centres are ideally suited for the machining of large pumps and housings for power generating and continuous-flow machinery. The other areas of application are general mechanical engineering, the oil and gas industry or aerospace.
HELLER and Daimler receive R&D 100 Award
In terms of its turnkey competence in crankcase manufacturing systems, HELLER has for some time been offering systems for the coating of cylinder bores on the basis of a twin-wire arc spraying technology. The process named HELLER CBC (CylinderBoreCoating) is a new addition to the crankcase manufacturing process chain. This process technology helped the group to gain numerous manufacturing projects again in 2014 in different countries, including Germany, France and Japan.
In November 2014, the coating process received an award from US trade journal R&D Magazine, naming it one of the 100 most important high-tech products. For this technology, HELLER and Daimler also received the R&D 100 Award, also known as the Oscar of Invention.
All in all, the HELLER Group is well-positioned in terms of markets and products, and with good earnings at the moment, a gratifying development of business throughout 2015 is expected.
