In Motion

We are very pleased that we have followed on from 2015, when we exceeded the two-billion mark for the first time, with sales revenues of €2.3 billion in the past financial year. Our growth in sales revenues in 2016 was dominated in particular by the large acquisitions DEUTSCHE PENTOSIN-WERKE GmbH and STATOIL FUEL & RETAIL LUBRICANTS (SFRL), which are both included over the full twelve months for the first time. Our organic growth was mainly in Europe, especially in Germany and Eastern Europe. Also in Asia, especially in China and India, we achieved very good results. We made important changes for the future in America – including the expansion of our product portfolio, two smaller acquisitions and large investments at the Chicago site.

On the basis of our values, we have established six global leadership principles relating to information sharing and knowledge management, for example. We thus clearly define the leadership style with which our teams should be led worldwide, how we ensure open communication free of hierarchies and how we cooperate successfully across international borders. We know that we need to tread carefully on this issue when it comes to our employees and that individual countries have different conditions. This process will therefore take several years. In general, we have determined that we are stretched to our limits with regard to communication in 60 companies and with more than 1,000 new employees. We will therefore do a lot more in the future to convey to our employees what FUCHS stands for. The global intranet and a planned chat tool are steps in this direction.

There are many reasons. In addition to our motivated team, a very important one is that we were and are always moving. In our more than 85-year history, we have always responded quickly to changing market conditions and used changes to our advantage: After it was founded, our company was gradually expanded internationally up to the 1970s. It was by no means an easy decision for our family to go public – but we took the chance to do so in 1985. After more than 30 years, we have a clean  record: There hasn’t been a single year with a loss, and we have always been able to pay dividends. The IPO was followed by some major acquisitions around the world. This resulted in a mix of locations with the genuine FUCHS culture, such as China, where we established ourselves back in the 1980s, and acquisitions that we had to integrate culturally and in terms of infrastructure. This was successfully accomplished over the years.

Digitalization is affecting us in many areas, be it logistics, production, sales or the monitoring of our products with the customer. We have therefore established a think tank for this issue, a company that deliberately considers new approaches and advances digitalization projects.

The world is changing at a rapid pace. This change must be seen as an opportunity. We are therefore undergoing a process of change in which we have already taken crucial steps in order to successfully overcome future challenges. For example, in 2012 we came up with the mission statement “LUBRICANTS. TECHNOLOGY. PEOPLE.” complemented by our values of trust, respect, reliability, creating value and integrity. This mission statement also explains our business model: We are focused on the world of lubricants and want to grow worldwide with around 10,000 products. We still have enormous potential here, as well as in the field of technology, where we want to be the clear technological driver. We connect our employees internationally and use regular network meetings to bring them together with other experts in their field from around the world in order to promote the transfer of knowledge. This is one of our major strengths. On the basis of our mission statement, we in the Group Management Committee defined the brand house in 2015 with FUCHS as the single umbrella brand for the whole world. It is founded on the positioning as “my lubricants company” for all stakeholders and the clear promise to our customers that we stand for technology that pays back. Our vision is “being first choice”. Another important element of the change process are the leadership principles, which we are now rolling out worldwide.

Because we believe the customer is king, we are working on every level to ensure that our customers are satisfied. We are therefore also working on a better balance between the triangle of sales, research and product management. Specifically, our industrial business will be represented by its own Vice President (VP) in the sales area in the future. And in order to bring product management onto an equal footing, we are creating a new VP position here too. While global Product Managers currently report directly to our Chief Technology Officer, the new VP will bundle their interests in the future.

We want to continue consistently expanding our global growth potential. We are deliberately spending money today in order to increase our future income. When choosing our investments, we look to the major growth regions of Germany, the USA and China. But we are also very interested in markets such as Korea, Russia, India, Turkey, Poland, Australia and South Africa. Our market shares here are sometimes markedly different, including between industries, and we are also looking for opportunities to strategically expand our business. We took such an opportunity, relating to the industrial oil business in the USA, in 2016 by acquiring ULTRACHEM INC.

The global economic and political situation will remain tense. However, our broad-based business model is good at absorbing uncertainty. For example, the vehicle market accounts for only a quarter of our activities. In addition to our wide range, the family values, which can be seen in the ownership structure, are another stability factor. They guarantee our independence and allow us to set out a long-term and sustainable strategy. Besides our high agility, we also have an absolutely stable foundation. We will therefore remain in a solid position and stick to our chosen path.