OLD LYME, Conn. –Sennheiser, the parent company of Sennheiser Electronic Corporation, has announced a positive balance for the fiscal year 2007 with worldwide sales up by 10.9 percent. Total global sales at the Sennheiser Group amounted to €395.3 million (approximately $626 million USD). With this result, Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG is continuing the successful series of results of recent years. Among the Sennheiser product divisions, the headphones segment held the top position.
"We are very pleased to have completed fiscal year 2007 once again with two-digit growth," said Volker Bartels, speaker for the executive team and president of manufacturing and logistics, at Sennheiser's balance sheet press conference held at the Wedemark, Germany headquarters in July. Sennheiser Group sales increased by 10.9 percent compared to 2006 to a total of €395.3 million. In the same period, earnings rose by 19.8 percent from €16.9 million (approximately $27 million USD) to €20.2 million (approximately $32 million USD).
"All Sennheiser markets worldwide have developed positively. In particular, the systematic expansion of our international sales network and the opening up of further markets have contributed to the good annual result," Bartels continued.
In spite of the weak dollar, the region of America increased sales by 2.0 percent to €104.5 million (approximately $165 million USD), thus remaining Sennheiser's strongest region overall. After adjustment for currency effects, this even represented an increase of 10.3 percent. The leading growth market was once again the region of Northern and Eastern Europe, which recorded a 26.0 percent rise in sales amounting to €79.8 million (approximately $126 million USD).
All segments of the Sennheiser Group contributed to the successful annual result. The front-runner was the headphones segment, which saw a 19.7 percent increase in sales. With total sales of €111.7 million/$177 million, this product segment accounted for the largest share (28.3 percent) of Sennheiser Group sales. "This excellent result was positively influenced by continued growth in the consumer electronics sector and the worldwide market development in mobile music," Bartels explained. "The wireless technology product segment also recorded continuous growth rates." As the second-strongest segment, with sales of €102.9 million (approximately $163 million USD), wireless microphones achieved an increase of 9.2 percent compared to the previous year.
Output from the Sennheiser production sites amounted to €150.4 million (approximately $238 million), up by 2.2 percent over the previous year. Further improvements in materials management and the supply chain ensured even higher profitability at the plants in Germany, Ireland and the USA. "We were also able to implement activities in the field of 'lean manufacturing' at all production locations,” Bartels reported.
The positive development was also reflected in Sennheiser's growing workforce: in 2007, the number of employees rose by 6.7 percent to an average of 1,976 employees worldwide.
As for 2008, the first six months of the year have already been positive for Sennheiser. "We are expecting further growth from expansion in the Asian market, in particular due to the foundation of our subsidiaries in Japan and China," said Bartels. At the same time, Sennheiser sees further development potential in Europe. And the company is equally positive about its future at the Sennheiser headquarters in Wedemark. "We plan to consolidate our production capacities at the site by building a new manufacturing and technology center in the second half of 2008," Bartels continued.
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