Strong demand

Rosenbauer boosts revenues and profits

Rosenbauer is the largest firefighting equipment supplier in the world.

(Bild: Rosenbauer International)

Rosenbauer has long since overcome the worst of the crisis - and now the firefighting equipment supplier has more and more figures to prove it. In the previous year, the company from Leonding (Upper Austria) increased its revenues to 1.3 billion euros. Profit before tax rose to 24 million euros. We are still waiting for the investor around Stefan Pierer, Mark Mateschitz and the RLB OÖ to come on board.

When will the entry and majority takeover of the new investor around Stefan Pierer, Mark Mateschitz and Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich be finalized and will the urgently needed millions flow in to boost Rosenbauer's equity again? And what role will Pierer, who is currently still fighting to save the insolvent motorcycle manufacturer KTM, really play at the fire equipment supplier in the future? These are two questions to which there are still no concrete answers.

Official approvals from three countries are missing
The formalities surrounding the entry of Robau Beteiligungsverwaltungs GmbH around Pierer, Mateschitz and two companies of RLB Oberösterreich have still not been fully clarified - most recently the official approvals in Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which are necessary to complete the deal, were still missing. At the same time, Robau has made a so-called anticipatory mandatory offer to the remaining shareholders to acquire their shares as well. The deadline for this runs until 5 p.m. today, Friday, but can be extended. Robau currently already has a fixed 50.1 percent stake in Rosenbauer.

Production at full capacity until 2026
Undeterred by this, day-to-day business at Rosenbauer is continuing - and apparently well. The company reports "continued very strong demand for firefighting technology". This is also reflected in incoming orders: last year, new orders worth 1.7 billion euros were booked - a record. The order backlog at the end of 2024 was 2.279 billion euros. An enormous buffer that ensures capacity utilization until 2026, but also increases the pressure to speed up production so as not to keep customers waiting too long. Intensive work is being done to achieve this, and some things have already been implemented.

Profit before tax rose to 24 million euros
According to the preliminary figures presented on Friday, revenues rose to 1.3 billion euros last year - an increase of around 242 million euros compared to 2023. The operating result climbed from 37.5 million euros to 65.2 million euros, while earnings before taxes rose from seven million euros to 24 million euros.