Press Release

“2015 was the most successful year in BSH’s history. We are very proud of this, in particular because we didn’t just maintain the previous years’ growth, we actually improved on it,” explains Karsten Ottenberg, Chairman of the Management Board. “In terms of our long-term growth target of € 20 billion in revenue by 2025, we are right on track. In order to achieve this target, we will continue to systematically align with the specific needs of consumers in all markets. This applies especially to new solutions in the networked era."

Positive Performance in all Regions All regions contributed to BSH’s positive revenue performance. In the largely saturated Europe market, the BSH Group was able to strengthen its market leadership, increasing its revenue by 6.0 percent (7.7 percent in Euros) in the last fiscal year. Due to the strong demand for premium products, revenue in the North America region grew by 26 percent (47.8 percent in Euros). Revenue in the Turkey, Middle East, Africa & CIS region remained stable, despite challenging economic conditions in the region (Russia, Ukraine, etc.): In the respective of local currencies, BSH grew by 3.3 percent here, while in Euros its revenue fell by 8.7 percent.

Stimulated by a positive performance in India in particular, BSH increased its revenue in the Asia/Pacific region by 11.6 percent (16.7 percent in Euros). In the Greater China region, BSH recorded further substantial growth in spite of an economic slowdown in China and increased its revenue by 5.2 percent in the local currency (24.3 percent in Euros) and therefore again gained market shares.

Digitalization, Customer Focus and Regionalization as Investment Drivers BSH invested a total of € 450 million in 2015 in Research and Development. This corresponds to four percent of revenue and represents a considerable increase in investment of 20.6 percent compared with the previous year (2014: 373 million Euro).

The investment focused on the one hand on enhancing products and solutions for networked home appliances for Home Connect. On the other hand investment focused also on expansion of the portfolios and production in the regions: BSH laid the foundation stone 2015 in Chuzhou, China, for the first dishwasher factory that will produce dishwashers specially developed for the Chinese market. Starting in 2018, it will manufacture an initial volume of 600,000 machines per year. At the same time, BSH is also investing in the Development center at the Home Appliance Park in Chuzhou. Over the next five years, the company will invest around € 215 million in the location.

In the last fiscal year, BSH acquired the company Fagor Mastercook in Poland. At the start of 2017, BSH will launch two new production lines for the European market in Wroclaw. Further examples of investment can be found in BSH’s Annual Report 2015, which was published for the annual press conference and can be downloaded here (publications.bsh-group.com).

Innovation Ideas at BSH: Enhancing Home Connect and Introducing a Sharing Economy Concept Digitalization and networked home appliances can fundamentally change the expectations of consumers. It is no longer just about buying a single home appliance, but about in the intelligent interaction of networked solutions that enable uncomplicated and smart everyday living at home. With Home Connect, BSH has established a currently unique solution for home appliances that allows users to control various appliances from different brands through a single app. By the end of 2015, Home Connect was already available in Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and China. Home Connect is set for further international expansion in 2016. By the end of the year, Home Connect will be available in around 25 countries.

The Home Connect platform of BSH will also be opened to external developers as a digital ecosystem this year. A software development kit (SDK) will provide external developers access to an uncomplicated interface for own developments and networking Apps in Home Connect starting estimated in June 2016. Furthermore BSH has acquired new partners: For example, the company Kochhaus is joining the ecosystem and will integrate the Home Connect interface into its app. In the future, consumers will be able to transfer settings from Kochhaus recipes directly to their oven via a mobile device using the Home Connect function. Further partners will join in at the IFA 2016.

BSH is also working on new products and services in the area of the sharing economy. The WeWash app will be unveiled at the IFA 2016: It provides consumers with an attractive solution for organizing their laundry more easily and efficiently. WeWash is a spin-off from BSH’s innovation process and operates as an autonomous limited liability company (GmbH). For BSH, new business cases like WeWash represent a promising opportunity to develop attractive market potential quickly and effectively.