VOSSLOH Group’s sales exceeded k1bn for the first time in 2006, climbing 7?7% from the 2005 figure to reach a total of k1?02bn. The company blamed restructuring costs for a 5?6% fall in EBIT to k82?7m for the year.Sales at the Rail Infrastructure division increased 5?9% to k613?9m, but EBIT decreased 7?5% to k81?2m because an above-average contribution to the growth came from the low-margin Infrastructure Services business unit. The Motive Power & Components division recorded a 9?9% increase in sales to k401?2m, with EBIT rising from k15?3m in 2005 to k23?6m in 2006. The reorganisation of locomotive manufacturing in Kiel had depressed earnings by k6?8m in 2005. ’2006 was a transitional year for Vossloh’, said CEO Gerhard Eschenr?der ’We communicated our strategic repositioning in September 2006. Today we can already look back on a number of successes in implementation.’ Expansion beyond Europe continues, and Eschenr?der anticipates that ’by 2008 we will have achieved a proportion of sales outside Europe of 30%.’H?Vossloh Information Technologies was formally re-named as Funkwerk Information Technologies GmbH last month, following its purchase by Funkwerk AG Group on February 7.n

Topics