HYMER – leading recreational vehicle manufacturer
Erwin Hymer
– Development of turnover and orders despite stagnating market environment significantly above previous year
– Half-year figures confirm sustainable return to the profit zone
– Concentration on own product strength, implementation of customer requirements
The HYMER Group continues the positive business development begun in the last fiscal year of 2009/2010. In the first half of the current fiscal year (1 September 2010 – 28 February 2011), for example, the leading manufacturer of recreational vehicles in Europe was also able to record an increase in incoming orders, turnover and results which was significantly above the level of the previous year despite generally stagnating markets.
Incoming orders of the HYMER Group were 35 per cent higher in the first half-year of 2010/2011 than the same period of the previous year and orders on hand increased accordingly by 37 per cent. This positive development was due in particular to the brands HYMER, Bürstner, Carado and Laika. At HYMER, the rapid growth even leads to temporary delivery bottlenecks as a result of the strained skilled worker situation at the Bad Waldsee site, although the workforce was already increased again in the spring season by 100 employees compared with the previous year. In the whole HYMER Group, around 210 more employees were employed at the end of the first half of the fiscal year than on the previous year’s closing date.
The turnover of the HYMER group also increased significantly compared with the same period of the previous year. In the first half of the fiscal year, the Group achieved a total turnover of EUR 373.8 million compared with EUR 303.7 million in the same period of the previous year. This is an increase of 23.1 per cent. The HYMER Group continued to operate in an uneven market environment which was not yet able to match the level of the previous year again. Whereas new registrations of recreational vehicles in Germany increased compared with the same period of the previous year, other important markets such as France, Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavia saw a decrease on the whole. In total, new registrations were stagnant in the above-mentioned markets in the period under review. In view of this development and the much stronger reference period in the second half of the previous year, the rates of increases in incoming orders and turnover so far cannot be extrapolated to the current fiscal year under any circumstances.
Corresponding to the good business development, the results achieved also improved. The Group result before income tax after the first six months of the fiscal year increased by more than more than EUR 21 million compared with the same period of the previous year and is now + EUR 5.7 million. The Group result after income tax is + EUR 3.9 million (the complete half-year financial statement of the HYMER Group is available on the company website at “www.hymer.com”).
The Board of Directors is generally satisfied with the development of the fiscal year so far. However, this is no reason to relax. The Head of Sales, Hermann Pfaff: “Competition is becoming increasingly stiff. For the Management and the workforce of the HYMER Group, this is all the more of an incentive to defend our leading role in the market and further strengthen it as far as possible.”
For the year as a whole, the Board of Directors stands by its forecast so far of a clearly positive Group result after taxes. The brands Bürstner, Laika and Carado make an above-average contribution to this pleasing development. In addition, the Board of Directors sees good opportunities for further profitable growth of the HYMER Group. In the current fiscal year, the HYMER Group will again make investments in the double-digit million Euro range. These reports of success are confirmation for HYMER but above all an incentive to continue the recently adopted financial, marketing and product policy in future.
The investment in the product policy has already clearly paid off, as in the current poll for the motorhome and caravan of the year 2011, 23,224 readers of the trade magazines “promobil” and “Caravaning”, there was a clear vote in favour of the motorhomes and caravans of HYMER.
More prizes were awarded to HYMER than any other competitor. A total of eight awards, three 1st places, four 2nd places and one third place, went to motorhomes and caravans of the premium manufacturer from Bad Waldsee.
The successful Hymermobil B-Class range is unrivalled in the industry, which has now been voted motorhome of the year for the 24th time in a row by motorhome enthusiasts (due to different model versions with 28 individual awards in fact).
The success of this company philosophy is confirmed by another statistic: HYMER is the company in the caravaning industry which won by far the most awards in the last 25 years in which the promobil poll took place. In all, HYMER caravans and motorhomes won 65 awards. The competitor in second place only received 21 awards and the third-placed 17.
With this clear triumph, HYMER underlines the fact that the company from Bad Waldsee is one of the best in Europe, not only in terms of the product range but also in terms of quality. This success of HYMER is based not least on its 50 years of experience in the production of motorhomes. In addition, according to Bernhard Kibler, HYMER’s Marketing Manager, this is due not only to the endeavours of the HYMER engineers to comply with the latest technical standards but above all to the fact that HYMER listens to the customers, respects their requirements and also meets them.
