News
- Sales: € 4.917 bn.
- Operating EBIT: € 366 mn.
- Investments: € 298 mn.
- 51,846 employees worldwide
arvato AG turned in a solid performance during fiscal year 2007. In a market environment
that, despite some signs of economic revival, remained challenging and was characterized
by muted growth in Germany, core European markets and the United States, the internationally
networked media and communication service provider raised sales by € 135 mn. to €
4.917 bn. despite negative exchange-rate effects. Higher start-up costs, one-time expenses
that included Prinovis Liverpool, difficult market conditions in the intaglio and mobile
services segments, in particular, as well as exchange-rate losses kept operating EBIT
virtually unchanged at € 366 mn. For the first time in the company’s history, the number
of employees climbed above the 50,000 threshold.
We mastered a lot of challenges in 2007, took advantage of our opportunities and made
the necessary cuts
, Rolf Buch (43), CEO of arvato AG and a member of the Executive
Board at Bertelsmann AG, said during a telephone conference. "We are now wellpositioned
to handle changing market conditions and, overall, we concluded the past fiscal year
satisfactorily." arvato invested a total of € 298 mn. in developing and expanding its
business activities during the past year. Compared with 2006, the workforce increased by
more than 5,000 people to 51,846 (as of Dec. 31, 2007). The smaller portion of this
increase was attributed to acquisitions, the larger share to organic growth. We have
created many new jobs – including more than 1,300 in Germany
, Buch said. As before,
arvatos services segment was a key pillar of the company’s positive business development
last year.
arvato services
The core services businesses, which are bundled within
arvato services, posted profitable growth once again, bolstered by the continuing trend
toward outsourcing. arvato services has strengthened and expanded its leading market
position by taking such steps as acquiring the German locations of Vivento Customer Services
and locations of SFR in France
, Rolf Buch noted.
arvato infoscore, an integrated
service provider or data, information and receivables management, boosted sales and earnings.
In addition, the project called Würzburg integrates!
launched a partnership between
public-sector officials and arvato in Germany. This pilot project improves service quality,
simplifies processes and speeds up procedures in government agencies.
In the UK, arvato
services successfully entered the loyalty services
segment by acquiring the Moonriver
Group. The direct marketing firm inmediaONE], which posted another record result for fiscal
year 2007, launched the new brand Sainte Beauté and expanded the side business of direct
marketing.
arvato print
The printing services division, arvato print, posted generally
good results. With the exception of Spain every country division was able to increase
sales. arvato print continued to extend the value chain, forged ahead with its
transformation into an integrated service provider in the area of printing production,
strengthened its market position and was able to build up 75 new workplaces in Germany alone
,
Buch said.
The flagship Mohn media was able to not only increase sales but also production volumes by
two digits. The printing business in the United States was successfully reorganized:
arvato print USA now comes forward as a strong group of companies offering comprehensive
packages of printing services and solutions concerning the printing of books from a single
source.
Prinovis, the intaglio joint venture of arvato, Gruner + Jahr and Axel Springer AG, faced
high start-up costs at its Liverpool location as well as persistently difficult market
conditions. It posted substantially lower earnings as a result.
arvato storage media / arvato digital services
In autumn 2007, the storage
media segment and parts of the services business were bundled into the new division
arvato digital services. By rounding out the existing arvato storage media service range
with additional offers, an integrated full-service provider of digital content was created.
Consequently, we are making optimal use of the operative strengths of the entire arvato
group and are responding to our customers’ desire for increasingly integrated services
provided by a single source
, Rolf Buch said overall, the storage media segment held its
own in a difficult market environment: While developments in Europe were favorable during
the reporting year, sales and earnings declined in the United States. DVD output markedly
increased compared with the previous year, while CD production declined slightly amid the
recent weakness in the music industry. As a result of advanced, rigorous concentration on
full-service offers related to storage media, both segments outperformed the market.
In the United States, the services portfolio was expanded with the acquisition of the
distribution location Pleasant Prairie, while the division strengthened its market presence
in Asia by taking over a Chinese replicator.
arvato IT
The IT services provider arvato systems achieved higher sales and
earnings in its core business. Sales dropped at arvato mobile. This was attributed to
developments in the cellular communications market – the trend in the ring-tone business
is still heading down – and the streamlining of the business portfolio with the divestment
of the B2C segment handsets & service plans. The joint venture moconta was launched and
was responsible for the BILDmobil rate offering, among other things. empolis recorded
higher sales and earnings, and is involved in the IT project Theseus as consortium leader.
Sales categories
A structural change in external sales by regions could be
observed compared with the previous year: As a result of the strong domestic growth and
exchange-rate effects, the German share of sales rose by 4 percentage points to 45.7 percent,
while the sales share of other European countries fell by 3.6 percentage points to 38.4
percent during the same period.
About arvato:
With more than 270 subsidiaries worldwide, arvato AG is one of the biggest internationally networked media
and communication services providers. In fiscal 2007, the group of companies that is part of Bertelsmann AG
generated sales of € 4.917 bn. arvato’s worldwide subsidiaries employ more than 52,000 people. arvato AG
comprises the divisions arvato print (rotogravure and offset printers in Europe and the United States),
arvato services (financial services/data management, full-service CRM services, logistics/supply chain management
and direct distribution of knowledge media), arvato digital services (e.g. replication, fulfillment,
distribution/supply chain management, financial services and electronic content distribution) and arvato systems
(international provider of qualified and customized IT services) as well as empolis, a leading provider of company-wide
content and knowledge management solutions, and arvato mobile, a provider of digital entertainment content and interactive applications.
www.arvato.com.
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