GERMANY - The Homag Group registered strong demand in the third quarter of 2021 again. As a result, order intake after the first nine months has already exceeded the previous full-year record achieved in 2017.

The company increased its operating result more than three-fold over the previous year.

Compared to the first nine months of 2020, the Homag Group’s order intake climbed by 82 percent to EUR 1,390 million (previous year: EUR 763 million). “Last year had, of course, been heavily influenced by the coronavirus pandemic,” explains CEO Ralf W. Dieter. “However, the substantial record in new orders at the end of the first three quarters testifies to the currently strong demand for our solutions.” Sales increased by 22 percent to EUR 1,017 million (previous year: EUR 833 million), while the order backlog also reached a record figure of EUR 1,008 million as of September 30, 2021 (September 30, 2020: EUR 461 million).

“Order intake grew sharply for stand-alone machines and increasingly also in systems business with large-scale plants,” Dieter added. “This is evident in all regions worldwide, with the highest growth rates achieved in China and in Europe with a strong German market.” Among other things, Homag attributes the significant increase in service business to the fact that many customers are operating at high capacity utilization and require more spare parts.

Homag is also experiencing supply chain constraints, particularly with regard to electronic components. “We are also feeling the effects of the global supply chain problems in the form of repeated sporadic shortfalls,” explains Ralf W. Dieter. “Our global purchasing teams are working flat out here to ensure the shortest possible delivery times for our customers.”

In the third quarter, the Solid Wood segment, which is composed of the Homag Group’s business in production systems for timber house construction, received its largest order ever. “Under this order, we are supplying the production equipment for a new factory in which timber construction elements, such as walls and ceilings, are to be manufactured in large quantities and on a highly automated basis,” explains Dr. Daniel Schmitt, a member of the Board of Management, who will be taking over as Chief Executive Officer of Homag Group AG effective January 1, 2022. “This large-scale project offers great potential for the future and marks an important step on the way towards the industrialization of wood element construction. We continue to see great opportunities for future growth in this segment.”