Rohde & Schwarz has ended a successful fiscal year 2011/2012 (July to June). Incoming orders, revenue and the number of employees of the Munich-based electronics group rose again. Despite the debt crisis and ongoing political uncertainty, Rohde & Schwarz succeeded in taking advantage of the current market opportunities. At the same time, the company made sure that all business fields remain focused on future requirements.
In the past fiscal year, Rohde & Schwarz increased its revenue from EUR 1.58 billion (July 2010 to June 2011) to EUR 1.81 billion (July 2011 to June 2012), an increase of around 14 percent over the previous year. The value of incoming orders reached EUR 1.88 billion, 15 percent more than last year. The number of employees also grew from around 8400 to 8700 by the end of the fiscal year. The company built up capacity mainly in Germany, the USA und Asia. Since more employees need more space, Rohde & Schwarz is currently investing in new buildings at Munich headquarters and in Singapore. These buildings are scheduled to be completed by next March and the end of 2013, respectively.
Rohde & Schwarz relies on a broad base of four core business fields: test and measurement, broadcasting, secure communications and radiomonitoring and radiolocation. Wireless communications T&M was the largest revenue driver in the past fiscal year. The continuing strong demand for smartphones and tablet PCs and the worldwide rollout of LTE kept order books full and led to high utilization of production capacity. Manfred Fleischmann, President and CEO of Rohde & Schwarz, reports: "Our production plants in Germany, the Czech Republic and Asia delivered the highest production output in the company's history."
Another important milestone for test and measurement was the acquisition of SwissQual in the previous fiscal year. This Swiss company's test systems are used to reliably and comprehensively test and assess the service quality of wireless communications networks. The acquisition enabled Rohde & Schwarz to significantly increase its market share in the drive test segment.
The ongoing digitization of transmitter networks in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East provided crucial stimulus in the broadcasting business field. In a number of European countries, existing digital networks were upgraded to the DVB-T2 HD transmission standard.
Rohde & Schwarz is taking advantage of its success in transmitter network digitization to invest in other submarkets in the broadcast value chain. An important step toward this goal was to intensify the integration of DVS in the past fiscal year. DVS was acquired at the end of 2010 and complements the broadcast portfolio of Rohde & Schwarz in the studio segment. In addition, Rohde & Schwarz recently enhanced its presence in the broadcasting business field by offering audio/video headends. The new product family was launched at the IBC broadcasting trade fair in Amsterdam, shortly after the end of the fiscal year.
Project business development in the past fiscal year was moderate. The cost-cutting efforts of European governments and political influences curbed business in radiocommunications systems and radiomonitoring/radiolocation. Both business fields were nevertheless able to set positive trends.
In air traffic control, for example, incoming orders and market share increased significantly. In 2011, Rohde & Schwarz widened its ATC product portfolio by adding IP-based voice communications systems. The radiomonitoring and radiolocation business field was also able to win more orders. Together with its ipoque subsidiary, Rohde & Schwarz is consistently building up its expertise in IP data processing.
Manfred Fleischmann is confident about the perspectives for fiscal year 2012/2013: "Rohde & Schwarz has potential for continued growth. We are convinced that the demand for our products will remain high and that we will be able to strengthen our market position in all four business fields. We are therefore expecting high revenue and incoming orders at a level comparable to fiscal year 2011/2012."
For nearly 80 years, Rohde & Schwarz has stood for quality, precision and innovation in all fields of wireless communications. The Executive Board is made up of Manfred Fleischmann, President & CEO (Chairman), Christian Leicher, President & COO and Gerhard Geier, President & COO.
As an independent, family-owned company, Rohde & Schwarz generates its growth from its own resources. Since the company is not bound by quarterly thinking, it can plan for the long term. Currently 8400 employees worldwide contribute to the success of Rohde & Schwarz. Almost 5500 of them work in Germany, including about 2000 at the Munich headquarters. In the 2010/2011 fiscal year (July to June), the company generated a net revenue of 1.6 billion.