Syntegon reports solid fiscal 2022 results
Image: Syntegon
Syntegon announced sales and income growth in fiscal year 2022 despite the war against Ukraine, the energy crisis affecting Europe, the challenges of the global supply chain situation, and high inflation rates.
Order income rose by 3% from 1.5 billion EUR to 1.55 billion EUR, while total sales increased by 2.6% from 1.41 billion EUR to 1.44 billion EUR. Global machine sales accounted for two thirds of Syntegon’s total sales; the remaining third was from Syntegon’s service offering.
The company’s sales were distributed relatively evenly across the key global markets: 32% in Europe, 33% in North America, and 35% in Asia and the rest of the world, with America’s share increasing slightly and Europe’s decreasing.
Dr Peter Hackel, chief financial officer of Syntegon, commented, “In a year of challenging conditions, we succeeded in developing our business in a stable fashion thanks to our proven customer and supplier relationships, our global positioning, and our innovations.”
Trends in 2022
The trend towards more sustainable packaging solutions persists in the food industry. Syntegon is seeing this increasingly in its new machine business and in its services – for example, when retrofitting existing systems to efficiently handle sustainable packaging materials.
Syntegon launched several new developments in 2022 with sustainability as their focus. It integrated lock-style technology into its proven Sigpack TTM cartoner platform to cut energy and material costs. The new PMX packaging machine for ground coffee and whole beans processes recyclable mono-materials and enables condition monitoring to save energy and materials.
The process towards increased automation, accelerated by the Covid 19 pandemic, continued in 2022. Syntegon played its part in the trend towards increased automation in the food industry with various innovations. Syntegon automates process steps such as handling, feeding, and loading with the advanced version of its highly flexible Robotic Pick & Place (RPP) platform. Last year, Syntegon experienced strong demand for its processing and packaging technology in the food industry, particularly in North America.
“Our business is centered on the requirements of our customers. This is why we are always working on new processing and packaging solutions for the pharmaceutical and food industries, and are driving market trends such as sustainability, digitalisation and automation,” said Dr. Michael Grosse, CEO of Syntegon.
Sustainability and responsibility
In 2022, Syntegon continued its efforts towards environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG). One of the company’s goals is to reduce its CO2 emissions by 25% until 2025 compared to 2019. To this end, Syntegon built new photovoltaic plants at its sites in Beringen (Switzerland), Crailsheim (Germany), Dresden (Germany) and Verna (India), among others, in 2022.
The company also supports its customers on their journey to more sustainable manufacturing. A newly developed life-cycle assessment, certified by TÜV Rheinland, a German association for technical inspection, enables Syntegon to offer a transparent view of their machines’ carbon footprint to manufacturing companies in the food industries.
Having recently joined the Science Based Target Initiative, Syntegon is going to have its emissions reduction targets validated in the months ahead. The company will also publish its first sustainability report at midyear.
Research and development
In 2022, Syntegon continued to pursue market-specific research projects at more than ten competence centers. The company’s 1,400 employees in research and development produced many innovations, as is reflected in the increased patent and patent application count of 2,000 (2021: 1,800). At 49 million euros, R&D spending in 2022 was higher than in the previous year (46 million euros).
Extended portfolio of services and digital solutions
In 2022, the expansion of the company’s services and digital solutions portfolio increased the standard to which the company could cater to daily customer needs for its 67,000 installed machines worldwide. Syntegon added service agreements to its portfolio to offer effective asset and maintenance management services to customers at fixed prices.
The new cloud-based software, Synexio, enables machine and production data to be collected, evaluated, and visualised in real time, pushing ahead with the digitalisation of machine connectivity and interfacing a growing number of customer machines.
Syntegon reorganised its supply chain structure for spare parts last year, which enabled the company to improve its delivery times and punctuality in customer projects. The service business grew in response to increasing demand for service agreements and digital solutions, particularly in America.
“We will again contribute in 2023 with our solutions, doing our part to provide people with safely packaged food and medicines produced to the highest manufacturing standards. This we do in keeping with the spirit of our mission – processing and packaging for a better life,” said Dr Michael Grosse.
For Syntegon’s full 2022 financial year overview, visit: syntegon.com.
