The sensor manufacturer Sick, headquartered in Waldkirch, continued its growth course in a challenging 2023 financial year. Sales rose by 5.4 percent to 2,307 million euros. Adjusted for exchange rate effects, sales rose by 8.8 percent compared to the previous year. The overall financial and earnings situation developed positively. In the last financial year, the company invested 11.7 percent of sales in research and development. Sick places its solution portfolio on a broad, future-proof foundation that supports customers worldwide with industrial digitalization. The company submitted 70 patent applications for software and AI-based automation solutions in 2023 alone and further developed its sensor intelligence. A total of 12,185 employees work for Sick worldwide.

Sick made business development positive and achieved its forecast goals. Sales revenue increased by a total of 5.4 percent to 2,307 million euros. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) also increased by 15.1 percent to 189 million euros compared to the previous year.

Increases worldwide

Sick sensor applications are the basis for controlling digital and automated industrial processes in the factory, logistics and process industries. In the 2023 financial year, Sick was able to record sales increases in these three business areas, with factory automation showing the strongest growth at 6.9 percent to 1,185 million euros. Process automation grew by 5.8 percent to sales of 348 million euros. After the record years of the corona pandemic and high growth in e-commerce, logistics automation continued to show solid growth of 2.8 percent to 747 million euros.

Due to its good global competitive position, Sick's business development also had a broad foundation in the 2023 financial year. In addition to the comprehensive solution portfolio, the presence in all established markets and growth regions worldwide also contributed to this. In the home market of Germany, sales grew by 4.2 percent to 380 million euros despite a slight economic downturn. In the EMEA region, sales increased disproportionately by 12.2 percent to 823 million euros. This positive development is reflected in many countries, particularly in large European markets such as Great Britain and Italy. Sales growth in the Americas region of 7.1 percent to 545 million euros occurred particularly in the large markets of the USA and Brazil. Sales in the Asia-Pacific region fell by 4.0 percent to 559 million euros. This is due to the Chinese market, which was impacted by negative changes in the Chinese renminbi exchange rate and general market uncertainties in the region.

As of December 31, 2023, the Sick Group had 12,185 employees - an increase of 2.3 percent compared to the previous year. When expanding its workforce, the company placed a focus on research and development. The number of employees there increased by 9.2 percent to 1,760 employees. Innovative ideas from research and development have flowed into marketable products and 137 patent applications from Sick. Software-based solutions accounted for around 70 patents and the embedding of artificial intelligence in the Sick sensor hardware was also implemented in more and more applications. The company holds almost 4,000 patents worldwide for technological solutions that help customer companies control digital and automated industrial processes.