With CHF 2160 million or 21% more than a year ago, the order intake passed the mark of two billion Swiss francs, although the first quarter was still characterised by the turmoil in the global economy. All three divisions contributed to the growth. The greatest leap of 48% was achieved by Advanced Materials, followed by Food Processing (+27%) and Grain Processing (+15%). This pronounced increase in order intake was especially due to the emerging markets in Asia (+39%), North and South America (+19%), and the Middle East (+96%). Thus, business is now spread evenly across the four main regions – Europe, Middle East/Africa, Asia, and North and South America.
A perceptible improvement was also achieved in sales growing 11% to CHF 1907 million (+13% on a currency adjusted basis). The operating result (EBIT) was exceeding sales growth.
Buhler is a global leader in the field of process engineering, in particular for production technologies and services for making foods and advanced materials. Buhler operates in over 140 countries and has a total payroll of about 7800 worldwide.