Arburg Group (Lossburg / Germany; www.arburg.com) is expecting annual sales in 2008 to be in the order of EUR 350m, a 14% fall compared with its record year in 2007. "Arburg, too, is experiencing a decline in incoming orders all over the world," said Michael Hehl, Arburg management spokesman during the company’s "technology days" in Lossburg on 18 March 2009. Consolidated figures were not available at the presentation and the family-owned company does not publish details of earnings.

In the first two months of 2009, sales fell by around 50% compared with the same period of 2008. Arburg initially managed to adjust ongoing production to meet changes in the level of orders through the flexible reduction of worktime but from the beginning of February the company was forced to announce the introduction of short-time working. Only the sales and service activities are running as normal.

Despite the difficult economic climate, capital expenditure was up significantly in 2008 at EUR 13m, around 30% more than in 2007. This related primarily to the construction of a new customer centre at the company's headquarters in Lossburg, which has since been officially opened. A sales and service office was also opened in the United Arab Emirates at the beginning of 2009 – see Plasteurope.com of 27.01.2009.

"The first quarter of 2009 was certainly not good," said Hehl, adding that the company is very robust and capable of weathering the downturn for some time. The machine manufacturer "wants to delay laying off any staff for as long as possible" to ensure that it has qualified employees in place to position it to emerge from the current crisis stronger than before, Hehl said.