In the Black – VOLK Achieves a Profit in the Recession Year 2009

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	In the black –

VOLK achieves a profit in the recession year 2009

Bad Waldsee 19.02.2010 – The year 2009, economy experts agree, experienced the severest economic blow since the Second World War. Capital goods manufactu-
rers were very severely affected by this global economic crisis because equipment investments naturally fluctu-
ate more extremely than other components of aggregate demand. It is not without reason that they are regarded by economists as the cycle makers of the global econo-
my.

Also at VOLK, incoming orders and the development of sales in 2009 lagged behind the figures of the previous year. Nevertheless, VOLK operated successfully and achieved positive business results in the business year 2009 again. The company was able to increase its economic equity ratio to 50 percent. In the middle of the crisis, it was thus possible to achieve a new record value virtually unparalleled in the capital-intensive industrial truck industry.




	Profitable in turbulent times too – VOLK achieved a profit also in the year of crisis 2009 and increased its equity ratio to more than 40 percent

VOLK‘s heterogeneous customer structure proved to be a great advantage. Thanks to the diversification strategy pursued over the past years, the slowdown in sales in certain customer groups was compensated for at least in part by growth in areas which have not been affected by the economic downturn, such as the military business, the re-
newable energy industry or the luxury goods industry. Also the export business remained surprisingly stable in 2009. Ultimately, by consistently improving the efficiency and flexibility of the VOLK production and cost structures during the past boom years, it was possible to maintain profitability even though workloads were noticeably reduced.




	Yield to VOLK – VOLK will emerge from the crisis stronger than before in 2010

After years of rapid growth, the year 2009 offered VOLK the opportunity to take a break, enabling the company to rally its strength and to tackle projects which had been put off for a long time. Some of the largest projects in-
Fcluded the modernization of the company’s entire electrical system and the insulation of the factory buil-
dings according to the latest energy standards.

Free personnel resources were used to pursue the development of the product range intensely. In the mid-
dle of the crisis, some of our staff put in quite a bit of overtime to get innovations off the ground. In the past year, our engineers and technicians worked on more than 20 cross-platform innovation projects in which our products were updated to the very latest state of tech-
nology. Some of the implemented improvements proved to be so groundbreaking that they led to a number of patent applications.

Parallel to countless detail improvements, VOLK also

worked on the development of several totally new products. For example, VOLK moved into a totally new performance category with the new Hybrid Tractor HFZ 40 N, which was presented to the public for the first time at Interairport 2009

Thus VOLK is optimally positioned financially as well as strategically when economic development starts to pick up pace again. Although the incoming orders have been continuously increasing since last summer, it will probably

take some time until we see the record heights of the year 2008 again. The capital goods industry is traditio-
nally a late cyclical sector which follows the ups and downs of the general economy with a delay of several months. VOLK’s very close ties with the early cyclical logistics industry won’t make much of a difference in this case either.

However one thing is certain – we will find a way to use this time well, because experience shows that markets are redistributed during difficult market phases, not during boom phases. Therefore we’ve got quite a few things planned for 2010.




	VOLK Diesel Tow Tractor DFZ 120 H prior to loading into a 40 foot con- tainer – VOLK’s export business proved to be essentially stable in the business year 2009

		innovation@work^®