Sennheiser has published its financial results for 2016, which saw the German pro audio manufacturer generate turnover of €658.4 million. This is a drop of 3.8% on 2015, which has been blamed on placing greater focus on the core business. The Group's profit before taxes rose by 15.2% to €34.9m compared to the same period in the previous year. Its professional systems division saw turnover fall by 9.1%, with the consumer division up 1.7%.
"Coming from a very strong year in 2015, we were unable to build on the previous turnover growth in the reporting year. This was mainly due to placing strategic focus on core business in our Professional Systems Division," explains Dr. Andreas Sennheiser, Co-CEO of Sennheiser.
"Coming from a very strong year in 2015, we were unable to build on the previous turnover growth in the reporting year. This was mainly due to placing strategic focus on core business in our Professional Systems Division."
Despite the decrease in turnover, the Sennheiser Group was able to increase profits. In fiscal year 2016, profit before taxes increased by €4.6m to €34.9m, which was mainly due to reduction in material, personnel and other operating expenses.
€358.2m of the total sales of the Sennheiser Group were accounted for by the EMEA region, which showed a slight turnover growth of 0.3% compared to the previous year. In the Americas region, the group achieved €168.8m, 6.1% less than in 2015.
In the APAC region, Sennheiser realized €131.4m, a decrease of 10.8% compared to the previous year. The decline in turnover is in particular due to the phasing-out of a special situation: As planned, the Japanese government stopped subsidising wireless microphone systems at the end of the first quarter. These subsidies had a positive effect on turnover especially in reporting year 2015.
The turnover of the Professional Systems Division amounted to €316.3m, a decrease of €31.7m or 9.1% compared to the previous year. This can mainly be attributed to the withdrawal from the aviation business, the separation of selected third-party brands and the end of the governmental subsidies in Japan. In contrast, the Consumer Electronic Division continued its growth, generating turnover of €342.1m. Compared to the previous year, growth was slightly more modest, at €5.8m and 1.7%, respectively.
"Last year, we set up our product portfolio in both divisions to be well prepared for the future: For example, wired solutions will hardly be in demand a few years from now – a continuous development that we are reflecting in our products," says Dr. Andreas Sennheiser.