Economic stability and innovative power
Beckhoff Automation successfully continued on its growth trajectory in 2022. This specialist in high-performance automation technology was able to increase its sales to €1.515 billion. This represents an increase of +28% in comparison with the previous year's sales of €1.182 billion. This annual result has meant that the company has set a new record for its highest sales ever. Currently, 5,680 employees worldwide (March 2023), including over 2,200 engineers, contribute to the company's success.
- global sales in 2022: €1.515 billion (+28%)
- employees worldwide (March 2023): 5,680 (+13.6%)
- investment in research and development: €80 million
- intensive expansion of international presence
- major new product lines launched in 2023
- ultra-fast EtherCAT technology's 20-year success story continues
- extensive portfolio of automation solutions to minimize energy and raw material requirements
Economic development
Global sales increased by +28% in 2022
"Some aspects of the past financial year were challenging due to global conditions. However, we can look back on a successful year with great satisfaction and have achieved growth of +28% for a second year in a row," says Hans Beckhoff, founder and managing director of the family-owned company, adding: "We are used to growth. We have achieved average annual growth of +15% since 2000, but the +64% cumulative growth over the past two years, 2021 and 2022, has been exceptional, even for us!"
The automation visionary is not just looking back, but above all looking forward. Beckhoff will continue to grow sustainably, develop pioneering innovations, and bring new product lines onto the market in line with its New Automation Technology concept. To this end, this automation technology specialist will continue to invest €80 million annually in its research and development activities.
Beckhoff also expects further healthy double-digit growth for the current year, 2023, secured by a high number of orders in hand. However, a significant decline in order intake is currently being observed worldwide, largely attributable to the technical reaction to shortened delivery times, and which is only in small part due to the slight economic downturn.
The past two years have been characterized by tough supply bottlenecks in the semiconductor product sector, which forms an essential component of all Beckhoff products. This led to extremely long delivery times for Beckhoff and the automation industry as a whole. However, Hans Beckhoff sees that this is easing: "By the end of the year at the latest, we will generally be able to confirm normal delivery times for our customers again."
Expansion of production and storage capacities
This high sales growth demanded massive expansion of the production capacity. Hans Beckhoff announces further measures: "We are continuously working on the expansion and optimization of the entire company and will increase the production areas for all product sectors, expand the technical equipment and increase the number of employees. The goal is to always have 25% spare capacity for potential further growth."
Technological milestones
20 years of EtherCAT technology (Ethernet for Control Automation Technology)
Beckhoff has always been renowned for high-performance control and continually pushing performance limits in the world of automation. "For 43 years, we have been a driving force behind innovative automation technology around the world. We are proud of our innovative spirit and the technology that has been born from it. This year, we are celebrating 20 years of EtherCAT," Hans Beckhoff proclaims. Indeed, this communication system, which was developed by Beckhoff and premiered at Hannover Messe 2003, has certainly established itself as a high-performance real-time Ethernet solution in a wide range of applications, and has consolidated its position on the market thanks to its continuity and technical development, even becoming an open IEC standard. EtherCAT has now become a global standard: "A standard that was truly "made and invented in OWL [East Westphalia-Lippe]," emphasizes Hans Beckhoff.
The EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG), founded in 2003, makes EtherCAT technology accessible to all device manufacturers. With over 7,000 member companies from 72 countries (March 2023), ETG is the world's largest fieldbus user organization.
2022 – the year of innovation
"2022 was a big year for product launches," summarizes the automation visionary. The MX-System and the ATRO modular industrial robot system were followed by a complete hardware portfolio for machine vision.
The MX-System is a flexible, space-optimized, intelligent system solution that can completely replace conventional control cabinets, opening up entirely new possibilities in plant automation.
The ATRO is an exceptionally flexible modular industrial robot system that allows users to put together robot kinematics that fit their application perfectly. A highlight of the system is the internal media feed for data, power, and fluids, which allows all axes to be designed with endless rotation.
The complete Vision system provides machine builders and end users with a full image processing system that covers all necessary components, from software to illumination. With the introduction of the comprehensive hardware range, Beckhoff completes its machine vision segment within its product spectrum.
Beckhoff will attend this year's Hannover Messe from April 17 to 21 and present its extensive automation portfolio. Numerous innovations are the perfect fit for the exhibition's main theme, "Digital transformation of production processes". One example is the particularly powerful C6043 ultra-compact Industrial PC with 24 processor cores which is designed to accommodate large graphics cards (GPUs). This makes it the ideal hardware foundation for computationally intensive applications, particularly in the artificial intelligence field.
Beckhoff presents an innovation for TwinCAT that integrates the ChatGPT chatbot into the control world. Beckhoff controllers can "talk" to the chatbot and use its expertise for optimization, documentation and even program creation for both engineering and runtime. This provides the engineer with a new tool that can make his work far easier and more effective.
Employees spark innovation
Employee numbers
The company currently employs 5,680 people worldwide, of which more than 2,200 have engineering qualifications. "At Beckhoff, it is not uncommon for employees to remain loyal to the company, often for their entire careers. This is crucial and very important to us because they possess a great deal of knowledge and spark innovation – and this expertise, as well as their great enthusiasm, are what make us a technology leader in PC-based control technology,” explains Hans Beckhoff.
Academic and vocational training for young people
The company currently employs a total of just under 200 apprentices and students. To ensure the demand for well-qualified specialists can be met, Beckhoff trains young people for careers via many different apprenticeships.
In addition to apprenticeships for electronics technicians in the fields of automation technology, production engineering, or devices and systems, apprenticeship roles for industrial electricians specializing in devices and systems, mechatronics engineers, IT specialists for application development, industrial sales representatives, or warehouse logistics specialists are also available.
The company has also been focusing on work-integrated studies since 2010. In cooperation with the Gütersloh campus of the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, five engineering degree programs are offered: Mechatronics/Automation, Industrial Engineering, Product Service Engineering, Digital Logistics and Digital Technologies. Every year, an average of 100 students from Beckhoff are trained there in engineering professions. "Our goal is to keep talented young people in the region," says Hans Beckhoff, explaining the idea behind the practice-integrated engineering courses, adding, "Interest in our courses continues and has proven to be a successful model for us in securing young talent. The students from the first cohorts now hold important positions in the company." The cooperation model of work-integrated studies is also interesting for external parties – countries such as the USA, Mexico, Finland, Malaysia, and China are in discussions with the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences in order to find out more about this study model and potentially implement it or set up exchange programs.
In addition, Beckhoff invites schools to Hannover Messe to make young people aware of the training opportunities that it offers. This year, about 650 students from 10 partner schools will visit its exhibition booth. Through these opportunities, Beckhoff has already been able to attract a number of apprentices and students over the years and inspire young people to take on an internship, which they can now complete in-person again.