Webasto SE Business Report FY ended Dec. 2014
Recent Years
Financial Overview
-Revenues for FY ended Dec. 2014 was EUR 2,469 million, and it's increased by 8.3% comparing EUR 2,279 million for previous year. *Figures are restated according to IFRS11.
-Revenues by 3 core business units are;
- Sunroof & Components (Sliding and panorama roofs): 68%
- Thermo & Comfort (Heating and air-conditioning systems): 20%
- Convertibles (Convertible roofs): 12%
-EBIT margin for FY ended Dec. 2014 was EUR 136 million, which is 5.5% of the revenues, and it's increase of 9.7% year-on-year.
-The growth of revenues is primarily driven by the double-digit growth in the sliding and panorama roofs business unit.
Contracts
-Major contracts for FY ended Dec. 2014
| Car model | Product | Characteristics |
| BMW "2 Series Convertible" | Convertible roof | -The convertible top compartment opens and within 20 seconds the hydraulically-powered tension bow roof glides behind the rear seats, folding down in the trunk of the car. -The roof can be opened and closed at speeds of up to 50 km/h. |
| The third generation of Audi "TT Roadster" | Softtop | -Intelligent mix of lightweight materials, which consists of magnesium, aluminum, and plastic. -With two electric motors opens the tension bow roof fully automatically. within ten seconds, it disappears into a separate aluminum convertible top compartment. -The opening procedure takes ten seconds, and it does so up to a driving speed of 50 km/h. |
| Volvo, PHV "XC90" | High voltage heater (HVH) | -Significantly smaller and lighter than conventional positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heaters, and can be installed in the small dead space of the engine room. -The HVH features the Company's original electronic control unit, which controls power/current and links the system with the vehicle's other electric systems. |
| The third generation of Daimler "smart fortwo" | Fixed panorama roof | -The 1.2 square meter, transparent roof panel is made of the lightweight material polycarbonate (Makrolon from Bayer MaterialScience). -A roof made of polycarbonate can be up to 50% lighter than a glass equivalent, and it weighs only 9.8 Kg. |
| Opel "Adam Rocks" | Swing Top fabric sunroof | -Opens electrically in just five seconds. -Thanks to a plastic frame, the entire fabric roof weighs only 13 Kg. |
| The seventh generation GM "Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Convertible" | Softtop | -Co-development of engineers from Hengersberg site, Germany and its American plant in Plymouth, Michigan. -The series production takes place in Plymouth, with the soft top and inner lining delivered from the textile competence center in Puebla, Mexico. |
| BMW "4 Series Convertible" | Three-piece retractable hardtop | -The convertible roof stows away in the trunk within 23 seconds at speeds of up to 18 km/h. -Final assembly takes place at convertible roof factory in Regensburg, Germany, which is located on the BMW factory site. -The pre-assembly work is carried out at the manufacturing facility in Hengersberg, Germany. |
Awards
-The Company has won the World Excellence Award from Ford in the Gold category. It is the fourth award the Company has been given by Ford for its production plant in Schierling, Germany. So far, around 4.5 million roofs have been manufactured for Ford in Schierling. At this plant, the Company manufactures polycarbonate panels and roofs, light Webasto Glas ProTec safety glass, solar roofs, and lightweight sliding headliners made of a polyurethane composite material. (From a press release on June 12, 2014)
R&D Expenditure |
(in million EUR) |
| FY ended Dec. 31, 2014 | FY ended Dec. 31, 2013 | FY ended Dec. 31, 2012 | |
| Overall | 187 | 189 | 174 |
| Gross in % of sales | 7.6 | 8.3 | 7.7 |
*Figures are restated according to IFRS11.
R&D Activities
Lightweight Construction
- Polycarbonate: Lightweight, impact-resistant, 3-D moldable
- Glas ProTec (a glass-plastic composite): Lightweight, safety made easy
- PU composite (fiber-plastics composite): High stiffness, lightweight, 3-D moldable, acoustic and heat-insulating
New Products
High voltage heater (HVH)
-Webasto Thermo & Comfort SE of Germany will step up its activities to propose its auxiliary electric heaters for plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHVs). The Company's new high voltage heater (HVH) is significantly smaller and lighter than conventional positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heaters, and can be installed in the small dead space of the engine room. The HVH features the Company's original electronic control unit, which controls power/current and links the system with the vehicle's other electric systems. The Company's German facilities will mass produce the HVHs initially for Volvo's "XC90" PHV, starting in the middle of 2015. The Company also won new contracts from automakers in Japan, the U.S., Europe, and China in 2014, and plans to begin deliveries to these customers in two or three years. The Company is ready to develop custom-made products such as smaller or higher performance products to meet each customer's requirements. For a U.S. automaker, it plans to supply high performance HVH heater that offers 7kW as compared with the standard 5kW HVH. The company will do so by developing new heater elements and substrates. (From an article in the Nikkan Jidosha Shimbun on February 14, 2015)
Capital Expenditure |
(in million EUR) |
| FY ended Dec. 31, 2014 | FY ended Dec. 31, 2013 | FY ended Dec. 31, 2012 | |
| Overall | 125 | 147 | 121 |
| % of sales | 5.1 | 6.4 | 5.4 |
*Figures are restated according to IFRS11.
-FY ended Dec. 2013, among the total capital expenditure EUR 147 million, EUR 45 million were invested solely to expand the plastics competence center in Schierling, Germany.
Investments Outside Germany
-The Company announced that it has expanded its plant for sunroofs and panorama roofs in Arad, Romania. The third building at the site covers approximately 10,000 square meters. Now that the expansion has been completed, the site encompasses a total of 26,000 square meters. Total investments for the plant in Arad amount to about EUR 65 million. Last year, in 2014, over half a million sunroofs and panorama roofs were produced in Arad. For the current year, the company has projected close to 750,000 roofs for customers such as BMW or the VW Group. (From a press release on June 11, 2015)
-Webasto-Edscha is inaugurating a new building at its Velky Meder location, and thereby expanding its production capacities for convertible roofs at its European textile competency center in Slovakia. In Velky Meder the two geographically separate production plants of the convertible roof business unit of the Webasto Group are now being consolidated into one production plant. With this, pre-production and final assembly are now located under one roof. Overall, Webasto-Edscha employs about 430 people at Velky Meder. With an investment of EUR 6 million into the expansion of the facility, the production and logistics area was expanded by 8,800 square meters. The Slovakian location now has 16,300 square meters of total production space. (From a press release on January 23, 2014)
-In July 2014, the Company announced that its new automotive roof system plant in Shenyang, China started operations. The Company invested approximately EUR 4.4 million in this factory, which will serve as its 10th roof system plant in China. The Company expects to produce 130,000 roof systems at the new facility during 2014, and plans to increase the plant's annual production volume to 600,000 units by 2018. The Company has also invested in roof system plant in Wuhan, Hubei Province. In all, EUR 6.6 million were invested.