Bosch expects grow to follow up a record 05

Following a record year in 2015, Bosch has said that despite a subdued economic outlook and geopolitical uncertainty, it expects its sales to grow between 3 and 5% in 2016.

In the subdued market environment of Q1 2016, Bosch saw a year-on-year sales increase of just under 3%, or roughly 4% after adjusting for exchange-rate effects.

This growth was achieved despite the very strong nominal growth of the first quarter of 2015.

In 2015, Bosch Group sales reached an all-time high of 70.6 billion euros. The full acquisition of two former fifty-fifty joint ventures, BSH Hausger te GmbH and Robert Bosch Automotive Steering GmbH, pushed sales up by almost 22 billion euros, or 44%.

Bosch saw strong growth in its operations as well; calculated on a comparable basis, sales grew by 10%. After adjusting for exchange-rate effects, the sales increase was 3.8%.

Aside from the Industrial Technology business sector, all business sectors saw double-digit growth and were able to improve their result in 2015.

Bosch expects the global market potential of smart homes to reach 10 billion euros as early as 2017. By 2020, some 230 million homes 15 percent of all households worldwide will be equipped with smart-home solutions.

In Asia Pacific including Africa the Bosch Group boosted its sales in 2015 by 17%t to a total of 19.2 billion euros (2.8% after adjusting for exchange-rate effects).

In North America, Bosch was able to benefit from the regions excellent economic development. Sales here grew by 25% to 12.7 billion euros (6.7% after adjusting for exchange-rate effects). In South America, on the other hand, the recession in Brazil had a major impact on Boschs business. Overall, sales in the region fell by 13% (3.7% after adjusting for exchange-rate effects).

The Bosch Groups business in Europe developed better than initially forecast, with sales rising by 3.8 percent to 37.3 billion euros in 2015. Sales developed positively in the companys home market of Germany as well, climbing 1.3 percent.

Last year, the Energy and Building Technology business sector achieved a considerably greater increase in sales than in 2014. Sales revenue rose 11 percent to 5.1 billion euros (7.2 percent after adjusting for currency effects). The sectors steady improvement in result was reflected in a margin of 4.4 percent.

As of December 31, 2015, the Bosch Group employed some 375,000 associates worldwide. Headcount rose last year by 17,600 associates (like-for-like comparison). The largest increases were in central and eastern Europe, Germany, Asia Pacific, and the United States. In the current year, Bosch plans to hire roughly 14,000 university graduates around the world, with software expertise particularly in demand. At the moment, nearly half of all vacancies at Bosch are software-related.

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