Headlight manufacturer ZKW (Wiener Neustadt / Austria; www.zkw-group.com) has reported sales of EUR 1.03 bn for 2020, which is a decline of 17.6% compared to the previous year. Against the background of market uncertainties caused by the global coronavirus pandemic, the Austrian polycarbonate, polypropylene and PMMA processor is nevertheless satisfied with its sales figures: “Production at our sites was maintained throughout the year thanks to a great deal of organisational effort and enormous flexibility. We owe our success to the great teamwork and commitment of all our employees,” as CEO Oliver Schubert put it.

Schubert went on to explain that it would now be a matter of further expanding the company’s international activities. From 1 May 2021, the company will have a development office in Olomouc / Czech Republic, and a sales and development office in Shanghai / China. The Czech branch will support the global engineering network and take on additional development tasks beyond the existing capacities in Austria. This will initially create 50 new jobs, a number that might increase to more than 100 specialist employees by 2023. The new sales and development office in Shanghai will be assigned to the existing ZKW site in Dalian, Liaoning / China.

In 2019, the lighting systems specialist had expanded its plants in Mexico and Slovakia, with an investment of EUR 222m (see Plasteurope.com of 17.12.2019).