Early in 2020, HÖRMANN Digital assembled its first development team, which realised its first project later that same year. This was BugJack, an innovative ticketing tool that has arisen out of a collaboration with HÖRMANN Logistik. The tool is designed to help handle bug reports at customers’ logistics centres. Previously, when a bug report came in, customers would call the service provider. Only then would the error be fixed, usually requiring a site visit by an employee from the service provider. BugJack offers the option to use intuitive and digital methods to report bugs quickly and easily, provide clear tracking of the bug-fixing process and produce documentation that can then be used to help deal with future errors. BugJack is also the basis for further digitalisation of the service process and the integration of additional functions such as condition monitoring and predictive maintenance.

Ströer SE & Co. KGaA, a leading German company that operates internationally and works on marketing for online and out-of-home advertising, is handling this project. The company manages around 300,000 units of advertising space. Ströer commissioned HÖRMANN Kommunikation & Netze GmbH to carry out the extensive electrical and metal construction work involved in upgrading advertising facilities at numerous underground railway stations in Munich and Hamburg.

Automating and increasing the performance of fine sheet press line 2 is a key focus for the HÖRMANN Automotive press shop in Gustavsburg. The production of large pressed fine sheets for structural parts and outer skins has been a core area of expertise for the company for many years. ‘We have invested in new technology to meet the challenges presented by our most recent new orders, such as side panels for light-duty commercial vehicles and driver cabs,’ said Andreas Müller, managing director of HÖRMANN Automotive in Gustavsburg.

In 2020, MAT Maschinentechnik relocated a system to a different factory to improve logistical processes for an OEM in the steel industry. ‘The customer chose to call upon our dependable expertise, having already commissioned us for a number of previous projects,’ said Gerhard Jacobi, managing director of MAT Maschinentechnik.

HÖRMANN Industrieservice GmbH improved takt time at an OEM’s assembly facility and optimised the workplace while taking ergonomic and environmental factors into account. The company worked with the customer to devise a plan that would improve the loading and unloading of two adjacent machines used to process components.

HÖRMANN Industries GmbH (corporate bond, WKN: A2TSCH) today published its 2020 annual financial statements. While the Group’s start to the year went according to plan, its business activities were materially affected from mid-March onwards, particularly in the Automotive and Services divisions, by the spread of the novel SARS-CoV-2 virus, the associated restrictions on public life and the large-scale shutdown of production capacities in the automotive industry. The HÖRMANN Group’s sales in the 2020 financial year amounted to EUR 521.5 million (previous year: EUR 622.2 million). This decline in sales is attributable to the Automotive and Services divisions, whereas the Engineering division was able to keep sales at the prior year level and the Communication division increased its sales compared to the previous year in the crisis year 2020. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) came to EUR 25.5 million (previous year: EUR 35.6 million), while earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to EUR 12.6 million (previous year: EUR 23.7 million). At EUR 18.9 million, adjusted EBIT including non-recurring effects of EUR 5.8 million resulting from the relocation of the automotive plant in Penzberg and extraordinary goodwill amortisation in the Services division in the amount of EUR 0.5 million was only slightly below plan.

In the third issue of HÖRMANN’s mittendrin magazine, the cover story is entitled ‘We get things done’, and we report on the day-to-day work of the many people at the HÖRMANN Group who generate a significant proportion of our income and often have to operate in tough working conditions and bad weather.

In a live webinar, Peter Gierlich, systems engineering & IT sales consultant at HÖRMANN Logistik, explained how companies can gain a competitive edge with the aid of automated intralogistics.

The “Familienunternehmen im Fokus” online platform (known as FiFo) has made it its mission to shine the spotlight on the often little-known specialists in the world of family businesses. In March, FiFo turned its attentions to HÖRMANN Industries GmbH.