Hilti profits decline despite strong turnover

Hilti Group has announced net sales of CHF 6.3 billion (€6.3 billion) for 2022 and operating profits of CHF 731 million (€734 million), a 13.7% decline from the record profit it posted in 2021.

Hilti’s headquarters in Liechtenstein. (Photo: Hilti Group)

According to the company, which also announced a 10.0% growth in local currencies and 6.2% in Swiss francs, the decline has been attributed to the rising cost of raw materials, components and transport costs as well as the war in Ukraine and “increased investments into innovation” as part of its long-term strategy.

Despite this, Hilti did post a strong turnover in some regions, with the Americas seeing the highest sales growth in local currencies at 16.5%.

Elsewhere, Europe saw growth of 9.6% while the Asia/Pacific region, which was impacted by covid restrictions in China, saw growth of 8.2%.

Geographically, the only region to see a significant decline in sales was the Europe / Middle East / Africa region, which dropped by 2.3% due to the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia, according to Hilti.

Jahangir Doongaji, Hilti CEO, said, “2022 was a challenging year, which inevitably left its mark on our profitability. Nevertheless, we were able to achieve our sales target in local currencies. At the same time, we continued to invest massively into the future of our company.”

Despite the drop in profits, 2022 did see the company continue to invest in its product offering with the launch of the Nuron 22V cordless battery platform made up of more than 70 tools, which the company says is the largest launch in its history.

The company also announced a strategic partnership with Trackunit which saw the companies partner on making data from Hilti’s ON!Track platform available on the Trackunit platform, while heavy machinery equipped with Trackunit hardware can be viewed in ON!Track.