Wincor Nixdorf ends fiscal 2005/2006 in excellent shape and perfectly positioned to face the future.
Net sales growth of 12 percent and an increase in operating profit of 18 percent demonstrate how successful the fiscal year has been. What makes these results even more satisfying is the number of factors that have contributed to them. We registered a significant increase in our core business of providing IT solutions and services to banks and retailers. In addition, we managed to grow our business in sectors that we have been specifically targeting in recent years. Our operations benefited from the most encouraging growth seen in Germany for some time, coupled with the continuing successful internationalization of our activities. Beyond this, Wincor Nixdorf has clearly demonstrated that success in business and job creation are not incompatible with each other but can in fact coexist very well.
Our success is based on foundations accurately put in place to prepare Wincor Nixdorf for the future. The key principle guiding these activities was a strict focus on market and customer needs. The result was a series of highly effective innovations for high-end systems, net-centric software and modern services, not to mention better resources for our increasingly important Services business and a global production network that allows us to compete strongly in fast-growing regions.
Our success in outsourcing and in reverse vending machines shows that we are also capable of developing new business sectors.
Wincor Nixdorf is well positioned for further international growth. In Europe, having gained market leadership in the Retail segment, we are moving constantly closer to our stated objective of achieving the same in Banking. In parallel, we have strengthened our position globally for further expansion in regions of economic growth such as Eastern Europe, Asia/Pacific/Africa and the Americas. In two countries in which growth is of particular importance to us – the United States and China – we gained considerable momentum in the period under review.
Equally important, in my opinion, is the fact that Wincor Nixdorf is well on the way to having a comprehensive set of product and service solutions that enable it to support customers’ entire branch processes, thus allowing banks and retailers to concentrate on their core business.
Outsourcing represents an excellent example of the changes that have taken place and of the tremendous potential we are gradually unlocking. Internationally renowned banks have entrusted us with the operation of their branch self-service systems and branch IT. A further example of our comprehensive solutions comes in the form of the cash-handling services we offer banks and retailers. We are therefore in an excellent position to create significant added value for our customers. In the long term, we see this activity as providing an essential interface between retailers and banks – an area in which we intend to draw on our core competency with the purpose of driving innovation and achieving processing solutions that are even more effective. Further areas in which we can apply our ability to provide complete solutions include optimal management of branch-level IT and security systems, including associated IT and self-service infrastructures.
All these examples underscore Wincor Nixdorf’s commitment to continued, profitable growth. However, on the basis of the success achieved to date, we have considerably raised the bar we originally set ourselves. Nevertheless, our sights are firmly fixed on the growth targets set at the time of our Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2004, namely an average six percent increase in net sales and an eight percent rise in profit. These are the targets we have set ourselves for fiscal 2006/2007.
The entire Wincor Nixdorf team has been a decisive factor in our success so far and will continue to be so in the future. We will never lose sight of this fact. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would therefore like to thank all our employees, worldwide, for their commitment during the year gone by. While I thank you for your dedication in the past, I also urge you to remain steadfast in your determination to support the culture of success that characterizes our enterprise.
I would also like to thank our customers for their confidence placed in us. Customer trust and satisfaction with our performance exert a key influence on our business performance and, with it, the satisfaction of our shareholders.
For me, personally, the formidable track record achieved by our Company in recent times signals the right moment to hand over the reins at the head of Wincor Nixdorf to a younger pair of hands and step back from involvement in daily business. I do this with even greater peace of mind in the knowledge that Eckard Heidloff has unanimously been named as my successor. Not only have I worked closely with him for over 20 years, we also prepared and put in place all the foundations that underpin the Company today. Therefore, continuity of management is assured.
On the back of an extremely successful fiscal year and given the direction the Company has taken in business and staff development, I am confident that Wincor Nixdorf will continue to meet the challenges of the future and completely deliver on what is expected: satisfied customers, satisfied shareholders and satisfied employees.
Karl-Heinz Stiller