PDF (7.3 MB) - GILDEMEISTER Interim Report 3rd Quarter 2012

12 The Executive BoardLetter from the ChairmanThe year 2010 just ended was another crisis year for us. Following the losses in 2009caused by the crisis, gildemeister has been making clear progress again since autumn2010 and has worked strenuously to gain increasing success by year-end. A positiveboost came from the international autumn trade fairs, the imts in Chicago, the amb inStuttgart and the bimu in Milan. In the core “Machine Tools” segment, we were able toachieve a turnaround in the third quarter with order growth of 67%. Overall we increasedorder intake in this segment by 50% to € 854.2 million. The “Services” segment alsorecorded a significant rise; order intake here rose to € 419.2 million (+60%). We haveexpanded “Energy Solutions” by the market of energy storage, which we regard aspromising. Our trade fair appearance at the Intersolar in Munich proved that we are onthe right track in pushing our solar and energy storage technology, and we are developingin a strategically sensible way.Success does not come automatically. It has to be constantly initiated anew througha forward-looking corporate policy. We have overcome the crisis without financial lossesand in addition to daily trouble-shooting have reassessed our strategy. The measures weintroduced – above all the cooperation with Mori Seiki – have cushioned the effects of thedownwards economic trend. We have responded directly and quickly with comprehensivecost reduction measures in every area and moderate adjustment of personnel capacitythrough time accounts and short-time working. Changes took place not only in corporateprocesses but also in products, market cultivation and in the financing of machines. Infinancial year 2010 we became even more flexible and further reduced our fixed costs.Traditionally gildemeister has focused on innovations and effective marketing.By means of research and development, we are pushing innovations in order to set thetrends with its technological performance. In the field of energy efficiency for machinetools, for example, we are setting the benchmarks for production processes thatsave resources.By its motto “Cooperation sustains innovation“ gildemeister is demonstratingdynamism and performance in financial year 2011. Streamlined structures and flexibleprocesses place us in a position to act even more competently and efficiently in themarketplace. This is a conclusion that we have arrived at from the recent past. Thereforewe will further build upon our existing network of partnerships, which includes bothmedium-sized, family-run companies as well as large corporate groups. At the centre