ZKW With Another Record-Breaking Fiscal Year

ZKW With Another Record-Breaking Fiscal Year

The lighting system manufacturer generates consolidated group revenues of 968.5 million euros with 7,500 employees worldwide

The ZKW Group concluded the 2016 fiscal year with record revenues once again. The international automotive supplier succeeded in increasing its consolidated group revenues to 968.5 million euros. At the same time, the corporate group’s workforce grew from around 5,700 in 2015 to roughly 7,500 at the end of 2016. Around 3,200 employees work for ZKW in Austria, over 200 of them in the Wiener Neustadt electronics factory. The core business of the ZKW Group is developing and manufacturing high-quality automotive lighting systems and electronics modules. The company works at a total of eight locations – in Wieselburg, Wiener Neustadt, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, China, India, Mexico, and the USA. The strategic focus of the current fiscal year is continuing the growth trend and continuing to expand its production capacities and development expertise. “We will lay the foundation for new mobility concepts in 2017 with new, intelligent solutions. We are increasing investments in our electronics division for this purpose. We will significantly exceed the billion mark in 2017,” explains Oliver Schubert, CEO of the ZKW Group. The ZKW Group was able to significantly increase its revenues in 2016 once again, completing our seventh successful fiscal year in a row. The corporate group’s revenues almost quadrupled since 2010, from around 280 million euros to 965.8 million euros. Group revenues grew by around 25 percent from 2015 to 2016. The lighting system specialist also continues to expand in 2017: The next expansion of the development complex has already started at the Wiener Neustadt location. It was expanded by 2,800 square meters, offering space for 175 additional employees. The investment costs for this project amount to 3.5 million euros. International Expansion The Chinese location in Dalian was expanded to handle our good order position. It will continue expanding through the end of the year, with almost 899 employees developing and producing headlights for European and local customers. We expect that the total number of group employees will increase from its current level of around 7,500 to about 8,300 by the end of the year. ZKW is always looking for qualified expert personnel, especially at our international locations like Mexico, China, and Slovakia, as well as Austria. Future Market of Autonomous Driving ZKW sees the area of automated vehicle systems as a key future market. “Autonomous driving will markedly change automobiles as we know them today. This will also affect lighting systems, which will have more sensors on their headlights and will engage in more communication with their surroundings and with other road users. By that point, lighting the street may only play a subordinate role. That’s why we will continue developing our current products in the premium segment, as well as promote solutions for autonomous driving,” says Schubert.