Crossroads
Editorial
Bosch is a nexus — a place where paths intersect and the most disparate trends and developments converge. Here, input becomes output, and Bosch output becomes input for others.
Bosch can draw from its great technological potential as a diversified industrial group: mobility, capital goods, consumer goods, buildings, and energy. Barely any other company is so diverse, so networked, and so active in central areas of people’s lives. Bosch rests on many pillars, and they give it its resilience and ensure its long-term business success. Not only that: Bosch also combines expertise from different industries in order to apply technologies across sectoral domains. A corporate structure such as ours creates a wealth of opportunities, but also challenges. A company that is so widely diversified and has such a broad footprint is constantly in the spotlight, and this on many different levels. Consequently, Bosch repeatedly finds itself at forks in the road, at crossroads, and has to decide which path to take.
And it is to this situation that “Crossroads,” the title of this year’s annual report, refers — how Bosch determines the company’s future direction in times of fundamental change and uncertainty, how it orients to the growth opportunities of the future, and how its opens up new fields of business while optimizing existing ones.
“Crossroads” epitomizes our quest to take the right path for Bosch.
Group management report
The Bosch Group orients its business areas to the growth opportunities of the future. This involves the challenge of opening up areas of future importance that require considerable upfront investment, while at the same time adapting the existing business to the requirements of market developments. This has to be done in a global economic environment that is expected to remain weak. Despite these difficult conditions, the Bosch Group is making progress.
In nominal terms, Bosch Group sales revenue rose by 3.8 percent in 2023, to 91.6 billion euros. Adjusted for exchange-rate effects, the increase was 8.0 percent, which is within the 6 to 9 percent growth corridor set as a target for 2023. At 5.3 percent, the EBIT margin from operations shows a significant improvement as forecast and exceeds the previous year’s figure of 4.3 percent. Looked at by business sector, the picture is mixed. Strong growth in the Mobility, Industrial Technology, and especially Energy and Building Technology business sectors contrasts with declining sales revenue in Consumer Goods. As forecast, the main reason for the rise in sales revenue in Industrial Technology was the impact of the first-time consolidation of newly acquired companies. All business sectors show a significantly positive result for 2023. Industrial Technology and Energy and Building Technology performed especially well.
At the same time, many strategic projects continued to be driven forward. Among other things, special mention should be made of increasing electrification in many areas in response to tougher climate-action requirements, as well as of an even broader international footprint. Acquisitions and partnerships are strengthening both areas of future importance, such as semiconductors, and established business areas such as mobile hydraulics and the integrator business in building technology. One major project is the reorganization of the Mobility business sector to even better address future market, customer, and technology requirements.
-
Mobility -
Industrial Technology -
Energy and Building Technology -
Consumer Goods
The 2024 fiscal year is also expected to be very challenging: nonetheless, the aim is an increase in Bosch Group sales revenue in the range of 5 to 7 percent. Moreover, a comprehensive package of measures is intended to lay sound foundations for enduringly greater profitability. These measures will initially be a burden on result, as some of their effects will not be felt until after 2025. For this reason, the EBIT margin from operations for 2024 is expected to be roughly on the same level as the previous year. At the same time, we are committed to rigorously pursuing our long-term strategy.
