Company's resilience takes center stage as Wittmann Battenfeld celebrates Fakuma

By Karen Hanna 

Business is strong for Wittmann Battenfeld, but resin scarcity continues to cast a pall over the outlook of processors, representatives of the injection molding machine (IMM) maker said during a recent virtual presentation.  

Speaking before the opening of Fakuma, Michael Wittmann, managing director of the Wittmann Group, and Rainer Weingraber, CEO of Wittmann Battenfeld reflected on their company’s success, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, over the past year-plus.  

“We have actually a record level of bookings until now, particularly from the first quarter of this year. It still continues to be very strong,” Wittmann said during the Oct. 7 presentation, which included participation from company customers. “However, because of the severe material shortage, it’s everybody’s experience and you know better than anybody else, we also experienced it. There will eventually be a cooling-off, and we’re just waiting for it to happen, to basically drop down to a much more normal level than what we are seeing right now.” 

Since about the third quarter of 2020, the company has overcome the economic challenges of the pandemic to tap into growth from sectors that typically don’t see big spikes. These have included manufacturing of garden furniture and medical goods, Wittmann said. The U.S. is performing especially well. 

“North America, particularly the USA, that is really good ... doing quite well,” Wittmann said. 

He projected this year’s revenues to come in at 360 million to 380 million euros, or about $416 million to $439 million.  

“This is still a nice increase of 21 percent over last year. However, the real revenue will be determined by the availability of materials and components. We could be well over 400 million euros, in case there would be a normal delivery situation of components,” he said. 

The company is looking to the supply chain as it tries to address a “huge backlog” in orders. Expansions are underway in Europe and Asia, and development efforts continue, with a focus on energy efficiency, he said. 

“Any new product that we bring into the market has to be more energy-efficient than the previous models,” he said. 

Like Wittmann, Weingraber acknowledged the company and its companies have experienced uncertainties around shipping. 

“We, of course, suffer the shortages. And, of course, this will depend how long it is on the industry itself. So, we are affected, as well as everybody else. We’re curious ourselves also how long it will go, but we assume there are some months to go in order to deal with this,” Weingraber said. 

With a slew of show cancellations since 2019, Weingraber was looking forward to Fakuma, which runs through Oct. 16.  

“How many visitors will be there? Actually, for us, it’s also a little bit of a surprise,” he said, in response to a question about his expectations for the show.  

“I think we will be already satisfied,” he said. 

 Karen Hanna, senior staff reporter 

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