The Sennheiser Group had sales of € 300.4 million over the year, with all geographical markets and all business sectors contributing to the growth. Particularly pleasing to the company was the development in the consumer electronics and professional wireless technology sectors, as well as in the joint venture Sennheiser Communications.
“The continuously successful work performed by development, marketing and production as well as the untiring commitment of our sales subsidiaries and partners in the individual countries have made this good result possible,” said Rolf Meyer, President Marketing and Sales and speaker of the Executive Committee, on presenting the balance sheet at the company’s press conference.
“We have completed our anniversary year with record sales figures,” said Meyer. “Strong new products, especially in the professional wireless segment, have enabled sales to rise by € 38.7 million to € 300.4 million. That is an increase of 14.8 percent.” Headphones from Sennheiser are market leaders not only in Germany: according to the market research group GfK, the company has excellent value-based market shares throughout Europe in four out of five headphone categories, and in some case these account for one third of overall market sales. Professional wireless technology, which makes up the largest proportion of sales, also enjoyed excellent growth, as did the joint venture Sennheiser Communications, the specialist for headsets in the contact center, office and PC sectors, which increased its sales by 65 percent.
“We are also very satisfied with the Group’s profits. These have risen sharply, as the nominal slight fall in earnings is due entirely to the influence of extraordinary items from the previous year.” Profits of € 13.6 million for 2004 take into account a positive extraordinary item totaling € 6 million for insurance payments for the fire at Sennheiser’s Irish production plant. For 2005, the final insurance payment for the fire damage amounted to an extraordinary item of € 2.2 million, contributing to earnings of € 13.0 million. Worldwide, Sennheiser’s workforce increased to an average of 1,668 employees, 57 percent of whom work in Germany.