As of 31 December 2016 CAREL Group consolidated sales totalled €231m, an increase of 13.5% over the €203.5m posted in 2015, with positive trends in all business areas.
CAREL has announced its consolidated results for the 2016 financial year, confirming and improving the positive trend in earnings recorded over the last five years.
As of 31 December 2016 CAREL Group consolidated sales totalled €231m, an increase of
13.5% over the €203.5m posted in 2015, with positive trends in all business areas.
CAREL group managing director Francesco Nalini said: “The focus of our innovation continues to be improved efficiency and sustainability in the air conditioning and refrigeration sectors. Our growth in 2016 is the result of the most innovative solutions in these areas and shows how our R&D efforts are focused in the right direction.
“We have also seen very positive results from our systems designed for new refrigerants with a low environmental impact, especially natural refrigerants. In 2017 we intend to continue investing in all of these solutions, with even greater attention to connectivity, envisioning the added value we can offer our customers through machine learning algorithms”.
Export sales for 2016 accounted for 80% of the group total: analysis of earnings by geographical region shows how growth in terms of markets was driven by Europe, with an overall average increase of 19%, as well as good performance in Asian markets (+8%).
The growth recorded in 2016 was accompanied by an increase in staff numbers across the group. The number of employees grew by 132, bringing the total to 1222. Worth highlighting is the significant increase in employment at the new CAREL manufacturing site in Croatia, inaugurated in 2016, from 18 to 76 people.
Also underlining the strategic importance research and development has always played in maintaining the group’s leadership in the HVAC/R market, with the aim of ensuring differentiation and offering customers technologically-innovative solutions at increasingly competitive costs, in 2016 6.4% of sales were invested back into R&D, a 4.6% increase over 2015.
As part of the Group’s international expansion strategy, in 2016 two new sales offices were opened in Thailand and Korea, to strengthen the firm’s Asian presence. Finally, to boost production capacity, the Group’s fourth foreign manufacturing plant was inaugurated in Labin, Croatia, second only to its headquarters in terms of size.