Rosenbauer returns to the black in 2023

Higher sales prices increased sales to €1.06 billion. Thomas Berenger will become interim chief technology officer from March.

According to preliminary results, Upper Austria fire department supplier Rosenbauer will return to the black in 2023. The operating result (EBIT) reached 37.4 million euros after a loss of 10.6 million euros in the previous year, the listed company announced on Friday. “Thanks to measures to increase efficiency and higher sales prices for delivered vehicles, the group of companies has returned to profitability,” she said.

According to preliminary figures, the Rosenbauer Group increased its sales to 1.06 billion euros in 2023, after 972.2 million euros in 2022. According to the company, all sales regions and the fire preventive protection sector were able to expand their business volume. A cyberattack in February shut down production for up to two weeks and created a corresponding backlog. According to the information, earnings before tax (EBT) were again positive despite the significant increase in financing costs and amounted to 7.3 million (2022: -30.2 million) euros.

Supply chains have stabilized

Supply chains slowly stabilized over the reporting year. However, especially in the first half of the year, the number of chassis delivered remained below the agreed delivery quantities. Delivery times gradually decreased in the second half of the year. However, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) adherence to delivery dates has not been satisfactory until recently, and there have been more interruptions in the delivery of individual parts. “This made it necessary to hold more inventories, and the burden on working capital remained high.”

Rosenbauer benefited from good demand for firefighting technology in 2023. The value of orders received last year reached 1.45 billion (2022: 1.23 billion) euros. The order backlog reached a historic level of €1.78 billion as of December 31, 2023 (2022: €1.46 billion). Assuming further improvement in supply chains, Rosenbauer's Executive Board expects sales of around 1.2 billion euros and an EBIT margin of around 5 percent for 2024.

New Head of Technology

Effective March 11, Rosenbauer will have a new interim chief technology officer, the fire department equipment supplier announced Friday. Thomas Berenger (55) will temporarily take over as chief technology officer (CTO). Previous CTO Daniel Tomaszko had already left the company in January, and CEO Sebastian Wolff has since taken charge of the technology agenda. Beringer, a native of Upper Austria who studied mechatronics engineering, supported Rosenbauer in setting up a production facility in 2009; He most recently served as Chief Operating Officer at Schwarzmüller Group. (Abba)