2000 Was The Most Successful Business Year Ever For ContiTech

The ContiTech Group of the Hanover-based Continental AG closed 2000 as the most successful business year in its history and, for the first time, each of its business units posted a positive operating result. Compared to 1999, the company increased sales by 4.2 per cent to 1.

79 billion Euro. In 2000 ContiTech generated 68 percent of sales with automotive manufacturers and 32 percent with industrial customers in the non-automotive sector. The operating result (EBIT) experienced a disproportionate increase of 6.

8 per -cent to 139 million Euro. “The medium-term target of a net profit margin of seven per cent” according to Manfred Wennemer, member of the Executive Board of Continental AG and Chairman of the General Management of ContiTech Holding GmbH, “was well surpassed, the return on investment at 16.5 percent likewise exceeded the targeted value.

” Wennemer considered it particularly pleasing that for the first time all eight ContiTech business units had contributed to the success of the Group with a positive EBIT. In 2000 investments in fixed assets at 86.6 million Euro or 4.

8 per cent of sales were 18.5 per cent down on the prior-year level of 106 million Euro. This is because no more investments were needed for buildings and infrastructure in Brazil and Mexico, the reason that had raised the 1999 figure.

In 2000, the costs for re-search and development amounted to approximately four per cent of sales, as was the case in the prior year. In the previous five years ContiTech has earmarked approximately 700 million Euro for investments in fixed assets and in research & development, thereby strengthening its position as technology leader. At the end of 2000, ContiTech’s workforce totalled 15,800 people world-wide (three per cent more than in 1999).