Annual Report 2009 - melitta.info

16
Melitta Group Annual Report 2009
The operating division Melitta Household Products Europe
is the largest organization within the Melitta Group. It
accounts for around 34 percent of total Group sales. Its
most important product categories are filter papers, filter
coffee machines and fully automatic coffee machines
under the Melitta ® brand, as well as dust filter bags and
garbage bags under the Swirl ® brand. Melitta Household
Products Europe also acts as distributor for the food
wrapping products of its sister company Cofresco.
Unsettled market
The general economic climate was dominated by unusually
fierce predatory competition in the retail sector, even
greater price sensitivity among consumers and a falling
propensity to invest in durables. This unsettled market
environment had a particularly strong impact on business
in Western Europe. Although we made encouraging
progress in Germany, sales in France came under
pressure.
Quality strategy secures stable sales level
Under these circumstances, the excellent value for
money offered by our products in the strategic business
field “Coffee Enjoyment” proved highly successful. This
was illustrated in particular by growing sales of our filter
Volker Stühmeier
CEO
Dr. Franz-Josef Konert
CEO
(until November 25, 2009)
coffeemakers. We also successfully established our
CAFFEO ® range of fully automatic coffee machines on
the market. With the new LATTEA ® and SOLO ® lines,
we once again presented ourselves as the specialist for
all aspects of top-quality coffee enjoyment and enhanced
the perception of our profile as the market leader in
respect of expertise and quality.
In the strategic business field “Convenient Cleaning”,
with its categories Vacuum Cleaning and Waste
Disposal, business in Europe as a whole remained
stable. Despite the adverse market climate, the two
categories were even able to make slight gains in key
markets and thus vindicated our premium quality
strategy.
One key area of focus with regard to our internal organization
in the past year was the restructuring of our sales
organization in Germany. The more modern alignment
as a multi-channel sales operation has made the company
better equipped to tap new distribution channels.
Melitta Household Products Europe
Sales
in € ’000
2009
2008
Employees
Average
2009
2008
404,704
410,510
1,277
1,131
Capital expenditure
in € ’000
2009
2008
Outlook 2010: Actively developing markets
with enhanced sales competencies and further
innovations
We will continue to strengthen the new product drives
in our strategic business fields “Coffee Enjoyment” and
“Convenient Cleaning”. In addition, we plan to enter
further – new – product categories. We see great potential
particularly in the field of new product innovations.
We expect further defensive consumer behavior in the
current year. We will use 2010 to highlight product
quality as a key differentiation factor in our communication
with customers. We will also make further improvements
to our processes and, above all, continue to
enhance our distribution competencies. This includes
tapping new distribution channels with the aid of our
realigned sales organization and achieving even stronger
shelf presence.
For the year as a whole, we are cautiously optimistic –
despite the difficult market conditions.
Melitta ®
5,174
6,333
Our brand for
coffee enjoyment.
Swirl ®
supplies products for perfect
household cleaning.
Cilia ®
The brand for tea preparation.
Gameo ®
The Scandinavian brand for
dust filter bags and accessories.
Codiac ®
The French brand for dust filter
bags and electronic accessories.
Melitta Household Products Europe 17