The Wels-based family company TroGroup says it has had the most successful year in its history: in the past financial year (as of December 31), the stamp and laser specialist increased sales by eight percent to EUR 312 million. The TroGroup named these figures in a broadcast today, Monday. The 300 million euro mark was exceeded for the first time. Managing Director Norbert Schrüfer spoke of a challenging but successful year: The general economic conditions had been difficult, and the currency effects had played into the company’s hands. The number of employees increased slightly from 1963 to 1980. 593 of them are employed in Austria.
In terms of sales, stamps (Trodat) accounted for 140 million euros and lasers (Trotec) for 161 million euros. Since the beginning of the year, the TroGroup has had a third business area for laser sources, “Iradion”: For this reason, the German laser source manufacturer InnoLas Photonics was taken over last year. The laser business is much younger: Trotec has been around for 25 years. However, the revenues have been higher than in the stamp business since 2017 (Trodat has been around for 110 years). The company’s export rate is 97 percent.
The TroGroup sees growth potential in China, including for stamps: the plant in Xiamen was expanded last year for six million euros, and the production area was doubled. Four million euros were invested in the “Walter Just Technikum” at the headquarters in Wels: The building, named after the founder, houses toolmaking, equipment design and the new training center with a training workshop. The number of training positions has been doubled from 15 to 30.
Relaxation only in 2024
Schrüfer is cautious about the outlook and refers to the rather weak economic development worldwide, high procurement prices and inflation in wage costs. The TroGroup does not expect the cost and inflationary pressure to ease until 2024. According to the company, it has coped well with the consequences of the cyber attack at the beginning of the year: As reported, the data was encrypted in February and a ransom was extorted. According to CFO Peter Köstler, however, it was possible to quickly switch to emergency operation and, after forensic analyzes, to reactivate all systems from their own backups. “In the past few years, we have implemented a wide range of measures in the area of IT security,” says Köstler: the ransom was not paid.
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