June 2 (SeeNews) - German group Robert Bosch booked over 2 billion euro ($2.14 billion) in net sales in Bulgaria and Romania last year, with a 12% increase in associates to nearly 10,000, Bosch Group Vice President in Romania and Bulgaria and Managing Director of Robert Bosch SRL Mihai Boldijar told SeeNews.
"All business sectors performed very well, with double-digit growth, and we achieved roughly 600 million euro in sales to third parties. I saw that the traction we got in the last years continued in 2022, which was a good year for Bosch in the region and overall in the entire world," Boldijar said in an interview with SeeNews on the sidelines of a Bosch Bulgaria event on Thursday.
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In Bulgaria alone, consolidated sales totalled 576 million levs ($315 million/294.5 million euro) in 2022, up 57% compared to the previous year, according to a separate statement published by the company on Thursday. Bosch employees in the country increased by an annual 24% to 850, with over 630 specialists in research and development (R&D). Growth was driven by all divisions, as well as the efforts of the R&D units and software engineers, the group said.
Bosch has two engineering centres in the region, in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Cluj, Romania, forming an R&D cluster with its centre in Budapest, Hungary. The group plans to focus on further developing this R&D structure, as well as its software and hardware departments, as it sees that there is good potential in the region, Boldijar said.
The company's engineering centre in Sofia expanded to nearly 600 employees from 100 in five years and is currently working on over 60 international projects related to automotive technologies. The automotive software market is seen as a pillar for future growth, with the centre in Sofia expanding its activities to various vehicle types, including cars, motorbikes, trucks and electric bicycles, Bosch Bulgaria said. Following an initial investment of almost 9 million levs to establish the engineering centre in 2019, last year the company invested a further 6 million levs in equipment, software, hardware and the centre's interior.
"2023 starts at a lower speed than the years before. I see 2023 being a year where the businesses are actually more stabilising, with more consolidation. It's not the fast growth we have achieved in the last year. It's obviously because we have gained market share in all relevant divisions, all relevant sectors. I'm talking about automotive, power tools, home comfort or building technologies. And once you are achieving a certain market share and a certain volume, you need to have a consolidation period. Also, the market demand is not as strong as before,” Boldijar said.
In terms of investment, the group allocated 18 million euro to its operations in Bulgaria and Romania in 2022. In Europe, Bosch plans to invest 200 million euro in a new heat pump factory in Poland, which should deliver its first products in two years. Additionally, about 1 billion euro will be invested in expanding heat pump production in Poland and Germany in the next few years.
Boldijar said the group needs to focus on sales, R&D, staffing and stabilising its business in Romania and Bulgaria. The two factories in Romania suffered from a shortage of chips and semiconductors during the pandemic but are now in a period of regaining pre-crisis performance levels.
“We still have a huge potential in both countries, in Bulgaria and in Romania, for different activities. But we all know that it is a time sometimes of constraints. We see that we need to take care of our investments but also to be profitable. We have to find the right balance between expenditure and revenue to keep our financial independence for the next years. So, we are looking forward to having more production facilities in this part of Europe,” Boldijar explained.
Worldwide, Robert Bosch's sales rose by 12% to 88.2 billion euro in 2022, with the operating earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margin rising from 4% to 4.3%. In the first quarter of 2023, the company increased its sales by 3.5% year-on-year, aiming for sales growth of 6 to 9% and an EBIT of around 5% for the whole year.
($ = 0.9348 euro)
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