NEU! Scheffer Magnet Systems NEW! Scheffer Magnet Systems

Dear customers, employees
and friends of our company,
2009 was the year of the financial and economic crisis which is why no other issue has been
discussed more. Sales dropped dramatically in a lot of industrial sectors, companies collapsed
left and right and heretofore unimaginable numbers of people were put on short-time work.
In my opinion, the government is putting on a show to make people think it is cranking up
the economy, although it seems to me they are not really thinking about what has to be done.
Will 5 billion euros of cash for clunkers really help, or are we just postponing problems of
excess production? The Economic Stabilisation Package II (that our companies are admittedly
profiting from these days) will only help in the short term. But billions of euros of capital are
being reorganised in a concentrated period that would have otherwise been extended over
a reasonable period of time. In any event, I am always of the opinion that it is wrong to use
tax money to meddle in the market economy because I believe the market will take care of
things itself. Subsidising business activity only helps for the moment while postponing the real
problems. The only thing left over is a mountain of debts that will substantially weigh upon the
future of our children.
But, now let’s get to the companies of the Scheffer Group. It is true that we are also feeling
the crisis. The number of orders we have received for crane equipment from was slightly below
the figures from 2008. However, we have to bear the fact in mind that last year was the best
year in our more than 40 years of company history. Beyond this, we started 2009 with a
14 month lead in jobs. There were some problems with delivery times – after all, nobody likes
to wait more than 12 months for his crane. Since the beginning of October of 2009, we have
been feeling a greater boost in requests for quotes and incoming orders. Detailed talks and
exhaustive negotiations with our customers bear out this trend.
At least in our sector, business activity is picking up again and we believe we will have more
orders incoming for the rest of 2009 and especially in 2010. The situation with orders in 2009
definitely looked good in window and façade equipment. We could also say that the demand
continues to be good in metal construction technology with our large building façade production
department. The only thing we are worried about here is the high-powered competition.
Market observers that were more active abroad in recent years are now crowding back onto
the German market more and more. After all, this is where there are the most robust building
activities in Europe these days. That puts some strong downward pressure on prices.
As stated, Fenster- und Solartechnik GmbH is profiting from the economic stabilisation package
and that will be even more the case in 2010 because a lot of municipalities will not have had
the time to kick-start their projects this year.
The Scheffer companies are still well positioned. That means that we will survive the relevant
crisis since we are financially independent and a healthy corporate group. We are also prepared
for any downward trends in turnover that may occur in the short term in 2010. In the medium
term, we believe we will be in line for growth. The Scheffer Group’s staff is even growing these
days because we are planning on hiring more people by moving the canting shop to Aachen,
Germany.
The entire Scheffer team is sure of one thing: together with you, our customers, we will be
tackling great projects to jointly master this economic crisis.
I want to thank all of you for a successful 2009 and I wish all of our readers at the
Scheffer News a healthy and successful 2010
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