GERMANY - The Hettich group of companies, one of the world's largest manufacturers of furniture fittings with headquarters in Kirchlengern, Germany generated sales of around € 1.35 billion in 2021.

That's 26 per cent up on the year before. 74 per cent of business was done abroad. Worldwide, Hettich invested € 79 million in new products, buildings and machinery. Hettich currently employs over 7,400 members of staff around the globe, more than 3,700 of them in Germany.

The upturn in demand in the home furnishings market that started in the second half of 2020 continued into 2021. In the second year of the pandemic too, home improvement and home furnishings continued to be high on consumers' agenda across the globe.  "We have done our best to work with our customers in an effort to bring new and beautiful home furnishing solutions to as many consumers as possible", reports Jana Schönfeld, Managing Director of Hettich Holding.

In just the same way as the market as a whole, the Hettich Group faced a whole raft of challenges in 2021. "Sometimes raw materials were lacking, supply chains were backed up or capacity was overloaded", reveals Sascha Gross, Managing Director of Hettich Holding.

The Hettich Group last year invested € 79 million into the future. The investment focus was on new products, expanding capacity and developing infrastructure. For instance, production facilities were expanded in Germany, China and India. The Hettich Group has also grown by acquiring a majority stake in Kuhn, the Bünde based sliding and partitioning system specialist, as well as in Actiforce, a specialist in height adjustable work tables from the Netherlands and Malaysia.