News from the world of the HÖRMANN Group

HÖRMANN Industries GmbH (corporate bond, WKN: A2TSCH) today published its financial results for the first nine months of 2021. In the period under review, the Group's sales increased year-on-year from EUR 366.8 million by EUR 63.2 million to EUR 430.0 million. The increase in sales disproportionately resulted from the Automotive and Communication divisions, whereas the Engineering and the Services divisions continued to feel the late-cycle effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated delays in order placements.

In this issue of mittendrin, the cover story is ‘Shaping the future’, and we provide some insight into the process of strategic development and the strategy of the HÖRMANN Group. We also explain the main strategic thrusts aimed at boosting our competitiveness, as well as the objectives that we are intending to achieve by 2025.

HÖRMANN Automotive in Gustavsburg has received a major bulk order from MAN for the production and development of the front underride guard, a crucial safety component on commercial vehicles.

Years of steady growth and a consistently high level of orders mean that Funkwerk Systems GmbH is starting to run out of space at its headquarters in Kölleda.

‘With the establishment of HÖRMANN Logistik Polska Sp. z o.o., we are launching our AutoStore® activities in Eastern Europe,’ said Oliver Vujcic, managing director of HÖRMANN Logistik.

To expand its branch network in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG is relocating its sales office to the Funkerberg Nordwest business park in Königs Wusterhausen.

HÖRMANN Group has decided to run a pilot project to trial fresh ways of attracting new employees and to offer a trainee programme to help staff get started. 

Owing to a shortage of frequencies, DB Netz AG was unable to use GSM-R communications for shunting in the region serving Frankfurt am Main’s central station, including the ICE depot at Frankfurt-Griesheim station.

Romanian energy company Hidroelectrica SA has chosen HÖRMANN Warnsysteme sirens to keep its dams safe. 

It was three days of thrills, putting stamina to the test. This meant working in teams to think, brainstorm, conduct research and wrestle with tough problems until late into the night.

HÖRMANN Industries GmbH (corporate bond, WKN: A2TSCH) today published its financial results for the first six months of 2021. In the reporting period, the Group's sales increased by EUR 62.1 million year-on-year from EUR 234.2 million to EUR 296.3 million, of which around EUR 15 million was attributable to material price effects not affecting earnings. 

The theme for this issue of HÖRMANN’s mittendrin magazine is ‘We’re shaping innovation’, and we report on the wide variety of activities that the Group is undertaking in the research and development of innovative new products, technologies and services.

HÖRMANN Industries GmbH (corporate bond, WKN: A2TSCH) today published its financial results for the first three months of 2021. In the reporting period, the Group's sales increased year-on-year from EUR 130.7 million to EUR 138.2 million. The increase in sales resulted disproportionately from the Automotive and Communication divisions.

Early in 2020, HÖRMANN Digital assembled its first development team, which realised its first project later that same year. This was BugJack, an innovative ticketing tool that has arisen out of a collaboration with HÖRMANN Logistik. The tool is designed to help handle bug reports at customers’ logistics centres. Previously, when a bug report came in, customers would call the service provider. Only then would the error be fixed, usually requiring a site visit by an employee from the service provider. BugJack offers the option to use intuitive and digital methods to report bugs quickly and easily, provide clear tracking of the bug-fixing process and produce documentation that can then be used to help deal with future errors. BugJack is also the basis for further digitalisation of the service process and the integration of additional functions such as condition monitoring and predictive maintenance.

The latest generation of the TSE902 remote control unit from HÖRMANN Warnsysteme GmbH is the product of ten years of expertise in the TETRA digital radio standard. TETRA stands for Terrestrial Trunked Radio and allows emergency services such as the police, fire service and ambulance service to communicate with each other securely and reliably. During development, the team from HÖRMANN Warnsysteme worked closely with the committees of Germany’s Federal Agency for Public Safety Digital Radio (BDBOS) and Bundesverband Professioneller Mobilfunk e.V., an association for suppliers and users of mobile radio communication equipment. The current requirements and recommendations of the two institutions have been implemented in the new remote control unit. The equipment can also be integrated in future elements of the federal government’s modular alert system.

The MESA®26 train radio system has been in use in one particularly sustainable setting since 2020 – Austrian railway operator ÖBB’s Cityjet eco, a variant of its Desiro Mainline (ML) multiple units, which is fitted with hybrid battery equipment and thus allows for easy retrofitting with a battery system.

Automating and increasing the performance of fine sheet press line 2 is a key focus for the HÖRMANN Automotive press shop in Gustavsburg. The production of large pressed fine sheets for structural parts and outer skins has been a core area of expertise for the company for many years. ‘We have invested in new technology to meet the challenges presented by our most recent new orders, such as side panels for light-duty commercial vehicles and driver cabs,’ said Andreas Müller, managing director of HÖRMANN Automotive in Gustavsburg.

French postal service company La Poste contracted the Beumer Group to deliver, install and commission two parcel sorting centres near Paris. Beumer engaged Austria-based Klatt Fördertechnik GmbH to supply a complete belt conveyor system for each of these sorting centres. ‘The Beumer Group has been one of our best customers for years, and we have been growing together,’ said Peter Klatt, managing director of Klatt Fördertechnik. He added, ‘The main reasons the Beumer Group has so much faith in us are the reliability of both our conveyor systems and our project management as well as the efficient use of energy, limited servicing requirements and sheer longevity of our equipment, coupled with low life cycle costs.’

Richter+Frenzel (R+F), a specialist wholesaler of plumbing and heating supplies, was setting up a logistics hub in Reichertshofen, a town near Ingolstadt, to be used to supply its branches and trade customers all over the country. A key aspect of this new-build project was a fully automated system for storing and gathering small parts. The team from HÖRMANN Logistik GmbH won R+F over with their intralogistics method. ‘Our concept for implementing the system centres on an AutoStore® small-parts warehouse. A conveyor system connected to it with integrated case erectors and sealers links the picking area to palletising and despatch,’ said Oliver Vujcic, managing director of HÖRMANN Logistik.

Funkwerk video systeme GmbH is overseeing an upgrade to video surveillance on the underground railway networks in Nuremberg and Fürth on behalf of Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft Nürnberg (VAG), the public transport operator for the company’s home city of Nuremberg. VAG and Funkwerk have been working together for many years, with Funkwerk having installed the first video systems for VAG in the 1980s. Trust, experience and expertise as a professional problem-solver and systems provider, a rapid 24/7 on-call service provided locally thanks to the company’s Nuremberg base as well as the level of protection provided for the investment made by VAG were all decisive criteria in the latter choosing Funkwerk for the project.

Würzburg’s tram operator has commissioned HeiterBlick GmbH to manufacture and deliver 18 new vehicles. These vehicles are five-section modular low-floor trams. They have been designed to suit the idiosyncrasies of a sophisticated infrastructure with steep sections of track and a gauge of 1,000 millimetres. The first vehicles in this series are due to start carrying passengers around Würzburg in 2022. HeiterBlick’s engineering partner is HÖRMANN Vehicle Engineering GmbH. 

Ströer SE & Co. KGaA, a leading German company that operates internationally and works on marketing for online and out-of-home advertising, is handling this project. The company manages around 300,000 units of advertising space. Ströer commissioned HÖRMANN Kommunikation & Netze GmbH to carry out the extensive electrical and metal construction work involved in upgrading advertising facilities at numerous underground railway stations in Munich and Hamburg.

For more than twenty years now, factory planners at HÖRMANN Rawema have been supporting Bharat Forge, the leading supplier of forged chassis and engine components, in its work relating to forming technology in forging in particular. How are the forging facilities set up? How much work is involved in building services engineering? Which automated process solutions are available? What are the requirements that the measuring equipment needs to meet? Finding answers to these questions is an ongoing process. ‘Above all, Bharat Forge relies on the expertise that stems from our wealth of experience, and we work together on efficient solutions to problems in areas ranging from system designs to product implementation,’ said Benjamin Bielefeld, innovation manager at HÖRMANN Rawema.

In Norway, the name KARI is synonymous with the new era of passenger information. The system from Funkwerk Systems GmbH ensures that passengers nationwide, from Oslo to Bergen, are supplied with real-time visual and audio information about rail services. ‘The passenger information covers more than 300 stations,’ said Christian Ringler, managing director of Funkwerk Systems. Bane NOR, Norway’s national railway agency, had some specific targets in mind. They wanted to improve passenger satisfaction, but they also wanted to have fully automated control over information output while simultaneously cutting down on manual processes.

In 2020, MAT Maschinentechnik relocated a system to a different factory to improve logistical processes for an OEM in the steel industry. ‘The customer chose to call upon our dependable expertise, having already commissioned us for a number of previous projects,’ said Gerhard Jacobi, managing director of MAT Maschinentechnik.

The scale of the changes to agriculture over the last hundred years is impressive. At the turn of the 20th century, when Germany was still largely an agrarian society, around 38% of the labour force worked in farming and forestry, and one farmer could feed around four people. Today, that first figure is just 1.8%, and one farmer feeds 135 people on average. ‘This enormous advance in productivity could not have been possible without the use of ever more efficient machinery, and that still applies today,’ said Uwe Jung, managing director of HÖRMANN Automotive in Saarbrücken and St. Wendel. One pivotal factor in production is the forage harvester. First developed in the 1940s, it is one of the most recent items of high-performance agricultural machinery.

HÖRMANN Industrieservice GmbH improved takt time at an OEM’s assembly facility and optimised the workplace while taking ergonomic and environmental factors into account. The company worked with the customer to devise a plan that would improve the loading and unloading of two adjacent machines used to process components.

HÖRMANN Industries GmbH (corporate bond, WKN: A2TSCH) today published its 2020 annual financial statements. While the Group’s start to the year went according to plan, its business activities were materially affected from mid-March onwards, particularly in the Automotive and Services divisions, by the spread of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, the associated restrictions on public life and the large-scale shutdown of production capacities in the automotive industry. The HÖRMANN Group’s sales in the 2020 financial year amounted to EUR 521.5 million (previous year: EUR 622.2 million). This decline in sales is attributable to the Automotive and Services divisions, whereas the Engineering division was able to keep sales at the prior year level and the Communication division increased its sales compared to the previous year in the crisis year 2020. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came to EUR 25.5 million (previous year: EUR 35.6 million), while earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to EUR 12.6 million (previous year: EUR 23.7 million). At EUR 18.9 million, adjusted EBIT including non-recurring effects of EUR 5.8 million resulting from the relocation of the automotive plant in Penzberg and extraordinary goodwill amortisation in the Services division in the amount of EUR 0.5 million was only slightly below plan.

In the third issue of HÖRMANN’s mittendrin magazine, the cover story is entitled ‘We get things done’, and we report on the day-to-day work of the many people at the HÖRMANN Group who generate a significant proportion of our income and often have to operate in tough working conditions and bad weather.

The “Familienunternehmen im Fokus” online platform (known as FiFo) has made it its mission to shine the spotlight on the often little-known specialists in the world of family businesses. In March, FiFo turned its attentions to HÖRMANN Industries GmbH.

Klatt Fördertechnik GmbH is benefiting from the rapidly growing mail order business: around 70% of its turnover is already generated by parcel handling systems.

BIM, involving digital data models, is facilitating processes such as the planning, construction and operation of buildings and production facilities. HÖRMANN Rawema has now launched a project with this in mind.

In a live webinar, Peter Gierlich, systems engineering & IT sales consultant at HÖRMANN Logistik, explained how companies can gain a competitive edge with the aid of automated intralogistics.

. ‘Our train radio systems are used not only in Europe, but also all around the world.

The Funkwerk Mobility Platform gives transport operators the tools they need for smart and interconnected transport.

HÖRMANN Automotive Eislingen GmbH has begun operations with a new power coating system at its factory in Ebersbach. ‘This system is used to pre-treat workpieces and assemblies of fuel tanks, panels and flaps as well as heating ducts for buses and similarly sophisticated components in a multi-stage wet chemical process and then to coat them with powder paint in a manual or automated booth,’ explained Tobias Frenzel, managing director of HÖRMANN Automotive Eislingen GmbH.

There was a successful outcome for the team from HÖRMANN Automotive in Slovakia as in the latter half of 2020, they completed a relocation from the Penzberg factory and ensured rapid growth at the Bánovce site.

Chemnitz-based HÖRMANN Vehicle Engineering is working with Flexiva Automation & Robotik, also located in Chemnitz, and Leipzig company HeiterBlick GmbH on developing a one-of-a-kind innovation: Europe’s first tram powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

Cities are dynamic ecosystems in which transport has a significant impact on quality of life. If the latter is to be not only maintained but also improved, it will be necessary to make adjustments to urban transport as soon as possible and offer adequate solutions to an array of challenges. These include an ever-growing population, particularly in major cities; rising levels of CO2 and particulates; outdated transport infrastructure; high noise levels; and severely limited useable space. ‘Last-mile’ logistics is incredibly important in this respect.

Another milestone has been reached in the development of an innovative bogie for rolling stock, with production started on the demo model of the hybridBOGIE longitudinal member. In late 2020, HÖRMANN Vehicle Engineering GmbH, based in Chemnitz, worked closely with its project partner Institut für Konstruktion und Verbundbauweisen gemeinnützige GmbH on production tooling and on devising and refining the manufacturing process to develop a near-production-ready reference component for the longitudinal member. ‘In addition to actual process validation, the longitudinal member component will also be used later in the project for further investigation as well as testing and evaluation of mechanical parameters and suspension characteristics,’ explained Matthias Büttner, project manager at HÖRMANN Vehicle Engineering.

HÖRMANN Automationsservice GmbH, a company of HÖRMANN Group based in Salzgitter, has acquired the Automation business unit, located in the town of Mittweida and employing 11 people, from SAV GmbH. ‘We held talks about an acquisition last year and have now negotiated the final takeover criteria and signed the contract for the asset deal,’ said Lothar Becker, managing director of HÖRMANN Automationsservice. The Automation business unit now represents another central German site for the Services division of HÖRMANN Group, with retroactive effect as of 1 January 2021. ‘We’re thrilled to be working with our new colleagues,’ said site manager Andreas Walter.

HÖRMANN Vehicle Engineering GmbH, based in Chemnitz, has been assisting the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with the development of its NGT (Next Generation Train) project for two years now. Disruptive and pioneering train concepts such as the DLR’s Next Generation Train are intended to make technologies and research findings available to the rail industry. HÖRMANN Vehicle Engineering is proud to be playing its part in this process.