Despite the ongoing global coronavirus epidemic, weak supply chains, and supply bottlenecks, the HARTING Technology Group, headquartered in Espelkamp in the Minden-Lübbecke area, maintained its growth trajectory in the 2020/21 fiscal year (ended on 30 September). The international family-owned and managed company generated EUR 869 million in revenue, a 14.5 percent increase over the previous year (EUR 759 million).
“We’ve effectively surmounted the obstacles of the coronavirus pandemic and have enjoyed great growth,” said Philip Harting, Chairman of the Technology Group’s Board of Directors, as he shares the company’s annual results. “We’re quite pleased with the excellent result and proud of what we’ve accomplished in the last few months.”
Sales & People Up across the Regions
In the 2020/21 business year, all of HARTING’s global regions did well, with many seeing significant growth. Sales in Europe (excluding Germany) increased by 15% to EUR 40 million, while sales in the Americas increased by 14% to EUR 12 million, and sales in Asia increased by 6% to EUR 13 million. Germany led the way with a 23 percent increase in revenue, or EUR 40 million.
Our personnel (excluding trainees) increased by 13% to 6,190 (prior year: 5,477) during the 2020/21 business year. In Germany, forty new positions were created, with a total of 673 employees (+23.4%) hired at the company’s foreign production sites and subsidiaries. As of September 30, 2021, a total of 3,546 employees were employed abroad and 2,644 in Germany.
Harting attributes these favourable business developments to a broad-based positioning across multiple sectors, markets, and countries. The company also plans to continue mastering new difficulties with robust connection solutions for industry change.
These obstacles, according to HARTING, include a high rate of inflation that is in line with expectations, as well as factors such as supply bottlenecks caused by a shortage of materials, fragile supply chains, rising energy prices, and the significant commitment and work required to bring about the energy transition. The pandemic coronavirus will also continue to have an impact on market trends and firm success.
Managing the pandemic
Speed and flexibility in communications and resolving the coronavirus situation were also watchwords for the in-house pandemic team that was created during the previous business year — to safeguard consumers and employees equally. The Technology Group was able to provide testing facilities for all plants’ employees early on, as well as give immunizations in the HARTING vaccination centre, which was built particularly for the purpose.
In 2022, these will be resumed, with the centre beginning to administer staff booster vaccinations in early January. Other measures, such as dividing shifts and working from home, are still in place at the corporation.
As a result of the ongoing pandemic, the HARTING Technology Group began a systematic global expansion of digitisation in its communications and marketing tactics, allowing it to stay up close and personal with its clients. Filming, live online seminars, online press conferences, and direct digital one-to-one engagement with customers were all conducted in the HARTING Forum, an events facility equipped with camera and stage equipment that serves as the beating heart of this communications operation.
Divisions focus on megatrends, IIoT, energy transition, and collaborative engineering
In recent months, the various divisions of the HARTING Technology Group have been focused on a number of critical developments. The company is confronting the energy shift by making energy storage solutions quick and safe to scale up, under the tagline “All for Energy.” Meanwhile, “All for Railway” is addressing two critical rail industry trends: transmitting larger currents and voltages and lowering CO2 emissions by making rail vehicles lighter.
HARTING is also committed to supporting single-pair Ethernet as a new global infrastructure standard for the digitisation of industry as one of the founding members of the “SPE Industrial Partner Network” (SPE). This novel type of data transmission for industrial automation is intended for use in the Industrial Internet of Things, as it provides better performance while weighing less and requiring only a single pair of wires (IIoT). SPE allows the field level to be easily integrated into the cloud.
The Technology Group’s HARTING Customised Solutions Global Business Unit combines elements from three divisions: Engineering, Connectivity, and Cabling. The Application Engineering Centers in the regions are driving forward a recipe for success that includes co-engineering, customer proximity, and developing integrated solutions with partners.
HARTING Automotive continued to grow rapidly in 2020/2021, as it had in previous years. The business is growing its offering of innovative, durable, and dependable charging solutions and plug-in connectors for electric mobile applications, following the megatrends of sustainability and decarbonisation. Thanks to its successful HA-Checkout ProLine model, a cash desk relaunched in a new Edge design, the HARTING Systems business, which specialises in retail checkout systems, increased unit sales by 91 percent.
“We’ve optimised our locations, which means we’ve invested in new technology and automation methods,” Philip Harting explains, referring to the EUR 40 million spent in the previous fiscal year. While the Espelkamp site’s future has been assured by a continual expansion of digitisation and automation, the national subsidiaries throughout the world have been spending according to the motto “In the region, for the region.” Expansions to sites (Automotive division and Switzerland) and capacity increases are among the highlights (Romania and Mexico).
Long Term Sustainability & Climate Mitigation
All of the company’s investments are geared toward long-term sustainability and climate change mitigation. “We’re green in everything we do, not only in our thinking,” Philip Harting explains. “We’ve been a green firm for over 30 years out of conviction, and we base all we do on this green guiding philosophy.” For example, he claims that since 2011, the company has saved about 175,000 tonnes of CO2 by using “green” energy – some of which it generated itself – as well as investing in photovoltaic technology and energy-efficient manufacturing methods.
Sustainable, resource-efficient thinking, on the other hand, does not merely affect internal processes; it also creates a trio of technology trends that are driving the transformation of industry, when paired with societal trends such as demographic transition and deglobalisation. “With new, innovative connectivity solutions, we want to provide real added value for our customers and make a significant contribution to electrification and digitisation,” says Philip Harting.
To that aim, he adds, the company is putting in significant effort and will invest a total of 90 million EUR in its own production facilities, new technology development, and making all of its global sites climate-neutral in the coming year. “We think we’re in a terrific spot.” Despite ongoing threats like as material shortages, rising energy and transportation costs, and the coronavirus epidemic, the CEO feels the company is on track for excellent growth: “Assuming everything continues to go well, we see no reason why we won’t be able to achieve double-digit growth in the 2021/2022 fiscal year”, concluded Philip.