GERMANY – The Homag Group, the world leader in machinery for the furniture and woodwoorking industries, ended the 2015 financial year with higher than expected order intake and sales revenues.

According to preliminary results released by its parent firm, German Dürr, the Woodworking Machinery and Systems division, which was created when it acquired Homag Group in October 2014, landed orders of EUR 1.058.4 million (16.1% higher than in 2014) and generated revenues of EUR 1.039.3 million last year, up 13.6% from 2014. Both results had hence passed the EUR 1 billion mark for the first time.

Order intake was 16.1% higher than in 2014. According to Dürr, the North America and Western Europe regions made the strongest contributions to this growth.  The group invested EUR 29.7million in 2015.

Looking ahead, the acquisition of the HOMAG Group offers Dürr additional sales and earnings potential that the Group is harnessing through the FOCUS optimization program. Under FOCUS, the HOMAG Group’s sales revenues are to increase to € 1.25 billion by 2020, with the EBIT margin to be widened to between 8 and 10%. The program sets out steps for the optimization of processes, IT structures, the corporate organization and the product range. At the same time, it aims at boosting growth in China and the United States as well as in service and project business. The trend towards individualization in furniture purchasing should also offer further business potential for intelligent batch-size 1 equipment.