We make our customers successful. - Oerlikon Barmag

Management’s discussion of results
Overview of the business year
For Saurer as a whole, business was very solid in 2003. Despite the
stronger Euro and continuing pressure on margins sales increased
by 2.9% over the prior year (6.6% in Swiss francs). This growth in
sales led to a net profit of EUR 47m, thanks largely to Saurer’s program
of business process improvement and fixed cost reduction
(the TEMPUS project), which was started last year. The profit is
stated after charging restructuring costs of EUR 28m (prior year
EUR 29m).
In the textile sector, slackening demand in the natural fiber business
was compensated by recovery in the synthetic fiber market.
The trend toward increased demand for high-tech products in
Asian markets was continued from last year. Reorganization of the
textile machine business, both operational and legal, was pursued
as planned, together with successful efforts to become a provider
of total solutions on a global basis.
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The transmission systems business went through a consolidation
phase in 2003. A combination of old projects running to conclusion
and new projects still in preparation resulted in a reduction of
reported sales and profit. The new businesses acquired last year
are now fully integrated and an initiative has been launched to improve
Graziano’s business processes, similar to the textile machine
business.
Surface Technology enjoyed a revival of market demand this year
and also reaped the benefit of its cost improvement measures introduced
earlier, enabling a welcome return to profitability. The
planned divestment of this division was realized partially with the
sale of Xaloy’s European units, while further steps are ongoing to
divest the remainder of the business.
The number of employees was reduced by 474 in 2003 (by 508
after adjusting for acquisitions/divestments).