Non-European markets remain the driving force behind growth at HARTING. For the third year in a row, the German market is struggling with stagnation, a lack of orders, declining production and weak export development. In the year of the technology group's 80th anniversary and the 40th birthday of its Japanese subsidiary, the company generated sales of approximately 312 million euros in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. This represents a strong increase of 30 per cent over the same period last year. In North and South America (Americas), the company achieved sales of 206 million euros (+33 per cent).
The EMEA region (excluding Germany) also achieved double-digit growth: Europe, the Middle East and Africa were up 11 per cent on the previous year with a total of 358 million euros. In Germany, sales decreased by 0.5 per cent to 221 million euros. The automotive division in particular is struggling with a shortfall in production capacity. Philip Harting, HARTING Technology Group’s CEO: "The global economy is facing significant challenges such as geopolitical tensions and conflicts, trade barriers, inflation and growing government debt. Against the backdrop of these major uncertainties, we are grateful that we were able to increase our sales so significantly."
Harting remains concerned about the development of the competitiveness of Germany and Europe as industrial locations. "The transformation of the German economy and industry is continuing unabated. The consequences of the shortage of skilled workers seem to have disappeared from the radar. The economic base is crumbling. Our customers in the automotive market, mechanical engineering, automation technology and the railway industry are severely affected. Competitive pressure from China continues to increase. We must therefore continue to increase our productivity, make processes more efficient and consistently reduce costs,” says the HARTING CEO.
Global company with local roots
As a globally active Technology Group, HARTING is consistently responding to geopolitical developments by further expanding its network of production, development and sales locations. Worldwide, the Group invested approximately 74 million euros in research and development and production capacities in the past financial year. In Bangalore, India, for example, a 650-square-metre technology centre was built to enable local demand for innovative connector solutions to be met even more quickly.
To support future growth, more than 100 million euros is to be invested in the new financial year 2026 for the first time in the company's history. Over the next five years, 75 million euros will also be invested in expanding the “Factory of the Future” in Espelkamp. Production areas will be consolidated, processes optimised and expertise pooled in the existing Plant 2 in order to strengthen Espelkamp as a state-of-the-art and future-proof location.
"In this way, we are simultaneously strengthening Germany as a business location, consistently driving forward our internationalisation and meeting local and regional requirements," says Philip Harting. "Having a broad base increases our chances of being more resilient to crises. We still see global business as the basis for further growth."
HARTING is not only committed to sustainability and future-proofing its own technological solutions. The Technology Group also made further progress on its way to climate neutrality and reduced the total CO2 emissions of all its plants to approximately 5,600 tonnes (-18 per cent compared to the previous financial year) through the continued use of renewable energy. HARTING aims to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions worldwide to zero by 2030.
