Focus on further internationalisation

In the first six months of 2011, the Hoeft & Wessel Group increased its sales revenues by 11 per cent, to reach EUR 43.4 million (2010: EUR 39.1 million). Ticketing and check-in systems as well as mobile terminals contributed a disproportionately large 30 per cent share of sales revenue growth.

In the first half of 2011, Hoeft & Wessel supplied ticket vending machines to public transport operators in Geneva and in two Spanish cities. Mobile data capturing devices were delivered to the Rewe supermarket chain and to convenience wholesaler Lekkerland. The UK subsidiary Metric installed car parking ticket machines in the Scottish city of Aberdeen and exported parking machines to Malaysia.

The international business of this IT and engineering technology Group for ticketing, parking and mobile solutions is gaining increasing importance. In the first half of 2011, almost 60 per cent of sales revenues were generated abroad. At present, the primary focus of international activities is on France and South America.

The operating result (EBIT) in the first half of 2011, at ‑EUR 1.3 million, turned out lower than in the previous year (2010: ‑EUR 0.9 million) since the Parking division was unable to make a contribution to EBIT due to temporarily lower sales revenues in the U.S.

In the wake of new orders placed, such as from eastern Europe for ticket vending machines and check-in terminals, from the U.S. for car parking ticket machines and from Switzerland for mobile terminals, the order intake in the first half of 2011 reached a volume of EUR 32.8 million (previous year: EUR 48.1 million). The order portfolio as at 30/06/2011 stood at EUR 51.4 million (31/12/2010: EUR 61.9 million).

For 2011 as a whole, the Hoeft & Wessel Group anticipates a slight increase in sales revenues to more than EUR 96 million and an operating result (EBIT) of about EUR 3 million. This presupposes that projects will be finalised on schedule and that the partnership distribution network will continue to successfully expand as planned.