VDL Groep surpasses 2015 records in 2016

The combined turnover (including internal deliveries) of VDL Groep rose from €2.686bn in 2015 to €3.208bn in 2016. The consolidated turnover came out to €3.032bn compared to €2.522bn in 2015. The net result rose from €125m in 2015 to €149m in 2016. The number of employees rose from 10,623 at the end of 2015 to 13,356 a year later. 84 percent of employees work in the Netherlands, 7 percent in Belgium, 4 percent in the rest of Europe and 5 percent in the rest of the world. VDL Groep has a strong equity position and is a financially healthy family business. “We are very pleased that this growth was broadly spread across our group of companies,” adds President and CEO Willem van der Leegte.

Subcontracting

Turnover in the Subcontracting division dropped marginally from €914m in 2015 to €892m in 2016. This was mainly due to postponed subcontracting orders for the high-tech sector. The result for the subcontracting division was positive and comparable to that for 2015. The order book has grown from €307m at the end of 2016 to €342m in week 8 of 2017. VDL Groep has good expectations for this division for the remainder of this year.

Car assembly 

The Car assembly division achieved a turnover of circa €1.4bn in 2016. The turnover for 2015 was €912m. The year was ended with a positive result. In November, VDL Nedcar in Born started production of the MINI Countryman, the third MINI model that is made for BMW Group. The production of the MINI Convertible and the MINI Countryman takes exclusively place at VDL Nedcar. In 2016 a total of 87,609 cars were delivered, of the types MINI Hatch, MINI Convertible and MINI Countryman. In addition to manufacturing cars, VDL Nedcar also produces pressed parts and performs engineering and installation work for third parties. Prospects for the car assembly division are positive. This is partly due to the expansion of production first with the MINI Countryman Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV) from March 2017 and then with the BMW X1 from August 2017.

Buses & coaches 

The Buses & coaches division managed to continue its upward trend. This has to do with the recovery of the market: more buses were sold. That certainly applies to buses used for public transport. The turnover figure was €437m. In 2015 that was €386m. VDL Groep had the good fortune of being awarded several tenders for public bus transport. The total number of buses delivered in 2016 was higher than in 2015 (1,192 versus 1,021). The buses & coaches division posted a profit in 2016. Considerable investment is being pumped into the development of environmentally friendly drive technologies, such as hydrogen-based electric. VDL Bus & Coach has delivered a total of 72 electric buses in 2016. In December,  particularly 43 electric buses went on the road in Eindhoven. This is the Europe's largest electric bus fleet. Partly based on the order book (€284m in week 8 of 2017 compared to €229m at the end of 2016), VDL Groep expects 2017 to be another financially healthy year for the buses & coaches division. 

Finished products

The turnover of the Finished products division amounted to €511m in 2016. The figure for the previous year was €475m. Clearly the economy is picking up. The result was marginally lower. The total order book rose from €267m at the end of 2016 to €271m in week 8 of this year. We are expecting a good year for our companies active in the finished products division. 

Outlook 2017

VDL Groep began 2017 as expected: the turnover is well above last year's level. The total turnover after the first 8 weeks of this year amounted to €675m and is thus considerably higher than at the same point last year (€407m). The order book (excluding VDL Nedcar) is up from €803m at the end of last year to €898m in week 8 of 2017. The outlook is exceptionally positive for all divisions. We expect the number of employees, turnover and result to grow again significantly this year. The expectation is that in 2017 we will continue to grow to a turnover of approximately €5bn. All the divisions will contribute to this growth. The car assembly division will play an important role in this. The subcontracting division will undergo extra growth through new investments from clients in the high-tech industry. “VDL Groep has the ambition to be a global player in the electrification of heavy-duty mobility in 2017,” says President and CEO Willem van der Leegte. This applies not only for heavy-duty vehicles but also in the area of battery management systems, charging infrastructure and energy storage. We intend to continue development of these and other innovations to obtain a larger market share. In addition, we aim to strengthen our position abroad. We will also continue to broaden and strengthen our own organization.”