Outstanding Financial Year for the Vorwerk Group
Wuppertal, May 26, 2021 – The Vorwerk Group has an eminently successful financial year 2020 to look back on. The Wuppertal family business’s consolidated sales rose by 8.6 percent to 3.2 billion euros in 2020, so that growth in sales significantly exceeded the forecast for the year. The year-end operating result also exceeded expectations. “We were able to react quickly and efficiently to the global COVID-19 pandemic,” said Reiner Strecker, Managing Partner of the Vorwerk Group, presenting the financial statements. The company has also made a successful start to the new financial year, with sales at the end of the first four months of 2021 up by over 30 percent on the comparable prior-year period. “A special vote of thanks goes to our employees and sales advisors, whose high level of personal commitment made this possible.”
As Dr. Thomas Stoffmehl, the Vorwerk Group Council member whose portfolio includes the Group’s worldwide sales organizations, emphasized: “Over the past two years already, we had been looking very closely into the question of how a modern, flexible, agile and sustainable company should position itself. The main focus of our efforts was the continued expansion of digital offerings as additions to and support for person-to-person direct selling. That was the basis on which we were able to swiftly overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic.” He expressed his confidence that the positive trend would continue: “Behind the rising sales, there’s another, for us very important, figure – the growing number of sales advisors in our Home segment.
At the Financial Press Conference, Reiner Strecker announced his retirement as Managing Partner after 12 years in office. “For me, having reached the age limit of 60, it’s time for a long-planned change, for me to hand over the management baton.” Strecker thanked the owner family, the Supervisory Board, as well all staff and independent sales partners for the trust they had placed in him.
In this connection, the Vorwerk Group will be altering its legal status to become Vorwerk SE & Co. KG. The Group headquarters will continue to be in Wuppertal, and Vorwerk will in the future also remain a family business. “With this decision in favor of an SE, we are orienting ourselves toward modern principles of corporate governance,” says Strecker. The Group will be led by a three-strong management team consisting of Dr. Thomas Stoffmehl as CSO and chairman, Dr. Thomas Rodemann (COO) and Hauke Paasch (CFO). Stoffmehl explained that a key focus for the new Group Council would be the further expansion of digital offerings to boost person-to-person direct sales. “For us as a direct seller, business without the involvement of the sales advisor is unthinkable. That is an important element of our strategy. And we have all been keenly reminded of the value of personal contacts in these times of restrictions. That’s why for us, the key to success lies in involving the sales advisors and giving them the best support possible with contacts and sales – regardless of the sales channel used.“
A brief summary of the individual divisions’ performance in 2020
Thermomix continues to be the biggest division in terms of revenues within the Vorwerk Group, reporting record sales in 2020 of 1.6 billion euros (an increase of 24.9 percent).
Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Kobold Division succeeded in matching its previous year’s performance with a sales volume of 703 million euros. While the German Kobold sales organization achieved a clear year-on-year increase (sales: 239 million euros, up by 10.5 percent), it was above all Italy, traditionally the division’s strongest market, which reported a severe decline in sales due to the strict lockdown measures imposed there.
JAFRA Cosmetics had to accept a fall in sales to 319 million euros (down 9.3 percent) due to the challenging situation created by the pandemic in its main market, Mexico.
The akf Group reported a slight year-on-year increase in revenues with sales totaling 496 million euros. The value of financing and leasing agreements concluded in the reporting year – i.e. new business – totaled 1.2 billion euros.
Summing up, the Vorwerk Group began the year 2021 stronger than ever. Even in these challenging times of the pandemic, the concept of direct selling with its highly motivated sales advisors at the heart of activities once again proved its worth. That’s why, in the view of the Wuppertal family company, the combination of tradition and a modern, agile organization paired with an up-to-date and modernized sales system is the key to its continued success.