2019 Hilti Company Report A BALANCE OF FOCUS AND CHANGE CEO Christoph Loos on the dynamics of the Group in 2019 and why learning curves make him optimistic. encouraging progress, including the ing and sales to logistics and 昀椀nance Hilti’s 2019 sales growth weakened to manufacturing and training. It’s a following: The Energy and Industry to 4.3 percent. How do you view this development? very exciting time that is unleashing sector now accounts for almost 20 In recent years, the construction indus- great potential, but also demands great percent of sales. At the center of this success are modular system solutions efforts and 昀椀nancial commitments. try has been able to reap the bene昀椀ts of a very strong economy in many coun- which are digitally integrated into larger projects’ work processes, from tries, which resulted in a great deal of What were the greatest challenges design and construction. This wave the company faced in 2019? early on in the design phase through to installation. For example, we replace of investments is now diminishing. It’s essential to 昀椀nd the correct balance There is an overcapacity of properties of focus and change. In our case, a trio the traditional welded support structure on the market resulting from the low of interests is involved: the focused in electrical/communication and pipe interest rate environment that has been implementation of initiatives stemming installations along with numerous other widespread in recent years. This has from our Champion 2020 corporate applications, helping our customers been exacerbated by ongoing political strategy, the achievement of our to reduce weight while signi昀椀cantly tensions in the Middle East and Turkey, ambitious 昀椀nancial targets and the sig- saving on time and cost expenditures. Another example is our Fleet Manage- Brexit and trade con昀氀icts between Chi- ni昀椀cant transformation of our company na and the USA. It’s a shame, but in the and associated investments. We are ment program for professionally and end, these represent normal market currently rethinking many areas in an ef昀椀ciently managing customers’ entire developments. Our strategy sets tar- effort to try and make the work of our tool 昀氀eets, which is seeing increasing gets relative to our competitors who, of customers safer and more productive. acceptance on account of our battery course, are facing the same weakened This journey to becoming a provider of platform for cordless tools, our very economic conditions. It’s encouraging comprehensive construction industry ef昀椀cient repair service and the high level that we could reach many of these rela- solutions also requires a great deal of of transparency provided by the various effort internally to ensure we take all digital elements of our service. We now tive targets despite signi昀椀cant 昀椀nancial investments. our team members along. This includes sell over 50 percent of our electrical transforming trusted processes as well tools in many countries worldwide via In which areas are these invest- as developing skills and abilities within Fleet Management. Four years after the ments concentrated? the organization. This type of transition launch of ON!Track, our digital asset is never an easy one and, more than management system, thousands of For several years now, Hilti has been evolving from being a provider of anything, it requires time. customers are pro昀椀ting from this solu- innovative, high-quality products to tion which provides ef昀椀cient and trans- parent management, geolocation and becoming a company that provides in- What makes you so certain that the tegrated solutions for the professional course you are following will contin- reliable documentation of their assets. construction industry. These solutions ue to be successful? And in an increasing number of BIM projects, we have helped our customers comprise various products, software First and foremost, the certainty that elements and services, and almost all success is always coupled with the to signi昀椀cantly save time and cut costs of them contain digital elements – spe- willingness to learn. Naturally, we are through BIM design and work昀氀ow ser- cial software, sensors integrated into going through multiple learning curves vices. With this, we have also achieved tools or IoT- and cloud-based solutions associated with the many changes our ambitious targets in the sixth year for evaluating data. At the same time, and the implementation of strategic of implementing our Champion 2020 we are currently digitizing large parts of projects. But overall, I’m very optimistic, strategy. So, I’m quite con昀椀dent about our corporate processes, from market- as we’ve already witnessed a lot of the coming business year. 08–09