Rosenbauer struggles with fragile supply chains

Rosenbauer, the fire brigade company, had to accept a sales decline of nearly 10% to €649.5 million in the first nine months. The result for the period decreased compared to the previous year from 17.3 to 6.8 million euros.

The reason for this: lack of supplies and consequently delays in production and delivery. “In some areas, this forces us to work for a short time,” CEO Dieter Siegel says in an interview with ON Nachrichten. Above all, it was the missing structure that hampered production. But there are also problems in many other areas, “from the computer chip to rubber seals,” says Siegel.

The order books will be full. Incoming orders have risen to €781.1 million and are close to the 2019 level, according to Siegel. The backlog of orders at the end of the third quarter amounted to 1.164 billion euros.

Delivery problems are also putting pressure on the company’s profitability. The EBIT margin is expected to be between 4.5 and 4.8 percent for the full year. The 5 percent margin was originally planned.

At least in terms of sales, there’s still plenty to make up for in a traditionally strong fourth quarter. Siegel assumes “stable development”. But it was never difficult to get a preview. “I’ve never seen a situation like this before,” says President Rosenbauer.

At the same time, Siegel announced that the prices of the new offerings will be increased by an average of eight percent with immediate effect. But that won’t be noticeable any time soon, Siegel said. In the case of larger tenders, it often takes months to conclude.