"234 million euros more turnover in one year, with almost the same sales prices by the end of the year, and everything produced and procured in-house - we've never had that before," says igus Managing Director Frank Blase. "Our colleagues have worked wonders. And we were lucky that we were able to implement our investment plans even in the bad year 2020." Turnover in 2021 amounted to 961 million euros.

32% more sales than in 2020 also means 26% more than in the record year of 2019. This year also saw the start of the implementation of the plan, which is known internally as "No. 1 Catalog": more than 80,000 items are now in stock or in higher quantities. In 15 distribution warehouses worldwide, the proportion of catalog products shipped on the same day or within 24 hours rose to at least 25%.

"This is probably why sales growth is almost the same in all product segments," says Blase. The online store pages also received improvements. Online sales increased by 55% in 2021. "Customers must be able to decide immediately on the web whether the plastic solution can be used and then have it delivered quickly. That's part of the 'easiest company to deal with' goal," says Blase.

500 new injection molding machines

The war in Ukraine and the shortages in many markets are prompting igus to invest even more in material availability in the short term. At the same time, investments in higher production capacities are continuing. Since 2020, production in Cologne has been increased or modernized by 300 injection moulding machines. A further 200 are on order.

95 percent climate-neutral

On the way to climate-neutral production by 2025 - 95% achieved to date according to Scope 1 and 2 (Greenhouse Gas Protocol) - various projects were tackled at igus last year: A total of 100 older injection moulding machines were replaced with 40 percent more energy-efficient models; energy management was further optimized and an ISO certificate for this will follow at the end of March.

In addition, igus planted 15,687 trees in 23 countries. Plastic waste in production that cannot be directly recycled was reduced by 21 percent. The global energy chain recyclingprogram chainge has also grown in recent years and has been rolled out internationally. This spring, igus is presenting its first energy chain product made from 100 percent recycled materials from the chainge program.