The Voith Group has finished the fiscal year 2012 (ending September 30) satisfactorily in a challenging market environment. The globally active family-owned company increased its Group sales by 2 percent to EUR 5.7 billion compared to the record value of the previous year. With EUR 5.7 billion, orders received were behind the excellent value of last year amounting to EUR 6.4 billion (-10 percent), which, among other things, was due to an extraordinarily high volume of major orders from the hydro power market. At EUR 6.1 billion per September 30, 2012, orders on hand were slightly above the previous record level (2011: EUR 6.0 billion).
All key figures are positive, although on a lower level than in the past year. Despite the declining sales for graphic paper machines in the Group Division Voith Paper, Voith was able to generate one of the best operational results in the history of the Group. The operational result before non-recurring result was EUR 341 million (-18 percent), the net income amounted to EUR 114 million (-43 percent).
At Voith Paper, the pioneer of the paper industry, sales declined by 5 percent to EUR 1.7 billion due to adverse market conditions. Especially new business was severely affected by the structural slump in demand for graphic paper machines: Orders received dropped by 13 percent to EUR 1.7 billion. Voith has promptly introduced a restructuring program. The negative impact resulting from these measures has already been fully absorbed in the 2012 end-of-year accounts. The operational result of Voith Paper decreased by 41 percent to EUR 84 million.
