Bosch Rexroth looks ahead after challenging 2024 financial year

• Sales down by 13.6 percent to 6.5 billion euros in 2024
• Stabilization expected in current financial year
• Preparation for business picking up
• Customer satisfaction increased again
• Partnerships in development and sales

Lohr a. Main – Bosch Rexroth closed the 2024 financial year in a difficult market environment with significantly lower sales than in the two very strong previous years. Sales in 2024 amounted to around 6.5 billion euros. This is 13.6 percent less than in 2023. Order intake in 2024 also reflected the economic conditions. At 6.1 billion euros, it was down by around 4.9 percent compared to the previous year. Thus, the decline was already significantly lower than in 2023. For the current fiscal year, Bosch Rexroth expects order intake and overall sales to stabilize. With a view to future growth, the company is continuing to invest in a targeted manner in new buildings, equipment and research and development, thereby supporting its long-term growth strategy. At the end of 2024, Bosch Rexroth employed around 32,600 associates worldwide.

“2024 was a challenging year, as expected. We are currently seeing that the situation is stabilizing and are already working on being prepared for when the business picks up. We are looking ahead and want to emerge from this phase stronger than before in order to remain successful even in a difficult environment,” says Dr. Steffen Haack, CEO of Bosch Rexroth AG.

The long-term measures with which Bosch Rexroth counters the global economic weakness and adapts to the structural changes in the market environment include, for example, the bundling of activities at locations in China, America, and Germany, as well as adjustments in production, development, administration, or sales.

In China, Bosch Rexroth is now managing the activities of the product areas in a much more independent manner. This enables the team in Bosch Rexroth’s third-largest market to act faster and to develop, produce and sell products that are specifically tailored to local requirements.

In the Factory Automation business field, Bosch Rexroth is focusing its global sales activities more on future-oriented industries such as the manufacture of batteries, semiconductors, and consumer goods.

Commitment to customers and innovation

The commitment of Bosch Rexroth to its customers and partners continues unabated. For example, the CU.BE customer and innovation center in Ulm has been modernized. Using specific application cases, the company demonstrates how companies can optimize their plants and factories economically and at the same time act more sustainably.

Bosch Rexroth also presented a number of innovations at Hannover Messe:

Cryopumps and solutions for hydrogen filling stations provide for economical and safe hydrogen refueling. This contributes to the development of an economical hydrogen infrastructure. Bosch Rexroth has developed the pumps and solutions in partnership with FirstElement Fuel, the market leader for commercially operated hydrogen refueling stations, at the new research and development center in California.

The Hydraulic Hub online platform, supported by artificial intelligence, enables quick access to information needed for hydraulic service and thus increases the efficiency of service and maintenance teams.

For electric mobility, Bosch Rexroth offers solutions for production from the cell to the complete battery, as well as solutions for recycling at the end of the product lifecycle.

The further increase in customer satisfaction shows that the company continues to meet customer requirements at a high level with its products, high quality and reliable deliveries.

Lower sales in all main markets

At 6.5 billion euros, sales were 13.6 percent below the figure for the previous year (2023: 7.6 billion euros). Adjusted for exchange rate effects, sales declined by 12.9 percent. The greatest drop in sales (around 19 percent) was in Germany and Europe, respectively. Bosch Rexroth generates around half of its revenues in this region. In North and South America, sales were down by around 13 percent year-on-year. In the Asia/Pacific/Australia region, overall sales fell by just under one percent – the decline of 4.9 percent in China, the third-largest market for Bosch Rexroth worldwide, was not completely offset by positive business developments for example in India (+10.2 percent) or Malaysia (+39.7 percent) due to their significantly lower business volume.

Order intake: decline less than in the previous year

In 2024, order intake amounted to around 6.1 billion euros. This is around 300 million euros or 4.9 percent less than in the previous year. Thus, the decline is therefore significantly lower than in 2023, when it was still 13.1 percent. The improvement in the figures over the course of 2024 indicates a stabilization at a lower level in 2025. However, in a global economic environment characterized by uncertainty, customers often still use their stock levels and remain cautious when making investment decisions.

Outlook for 2025: stabilization and a look at the upturn in business

“In the current fiscal year, we are currently seeing first signs of stabilization. Consistent cost reductions and a high degree of flexibility remain necessary in the current economic and political environment,” says Holger von Hebel, CFO of Bosch Rexroth AG.

At the same time, the company is continuing to make targeted investments in its global production network and in key future fields such as digitalization, artificial intelligence, and hydrogen technologies.

“With continuously improved products, solutions, and services, we support our customers in achieving economic success and acting more sustainably, even in difficult times. We are ready when business picks up again and our customers start to invest more,” says Haack.

Targeted investments and continuity in research and development

Bosch Rexroth adjusted its own investment volume to the situation in 2024, bringing it back to the level of 2022 at around 270 million euros, after the record figure of the year before. In 2024, the focus was on investments in production and logistics buildings at existing sites in Germany, North America, and Romania. At around 460 million euros for long-term investments in research and development, the ratio is 7 percent. These targeted investments and the high level of commitment to research and development, even in a difficult environment, underline the company’s confidence that business will recover and develop in a stable manner in the long term.

Partnerships as a success factor

At Bosch Rexroth, partnerships continue to be a success factor to benefit from complementary competences in development, to increase the speed of market processing or to strengthen the regional presence and thus customer proximity. Therefore, the company set up the joint ventures Le-HydrauliX and Le-ElectriX in China, which were expanded in 2024, and the development partnership with FirstElement Fuel in the USA, the consistently extended cooperation around the automation platform ctrlX AUTOMATION, or the close cooperation with sales and technology partners. At the Hannover Messe in 2024 and 2025, more than 20 partners presented themselves at the Bosch Rexroth booth.