Doors 

Market trends

The Doors Division achieved a revenue growth of 1.4% in the reporting year 2020, from CHF 359.4 million in the previous year to CHF 364.4 million. Adjusted for currency effects, the revenue increased by 5.0%. EBITDA without one-time effects grew from CHF 44.0 million in the previous year to CHF 49.1 million (+11.8%). In the reporting year as well as in the previous year, there were no one-time effects at the EBITDA level. EBIT without one-time effects amounted to CHF 24.1 million, compared to CHF 19.6 million in the previous year (+23.2%). While there were no one-time effects at the EBIT level in the reporting year, EBIT with one-time effects amounted to CHF 19.5 million in the previous year. To counteract the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the division implemented various cost-saving programmes and postponed some investments.

With the Prüm and Garant brands in Germany and RWD Schlatter in Switzerland, the Doors Division is one of the market leaders in the two domestic markets. In both markets, the division was able to gain further shares in the reporting year. With Invado, the market shares in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia are also to be expanded in the coming years.

The gratifying revenue growth of the division is due in particular to the German market, which has been performing very well. The two German companies Prüm and Garant succeeded in further expanding their share in this market during the reporting year. Together, the sister companies produced around 1.8 million interior doors in the reporting year. Construction sites in Germany were hardly affected by closures caused by mitigation efforts for the COVID-19 pandemic, and the country continues to have a strong construction industry. Between 2016 and 2019, around 280 000 new flats were completed annually, but the actual demand has been significantly higher, at around 375 000 flats annually. The resulting construction backlog currently amounts to about 700 000 flats, which corresponds to a new construction volume of two years. There is thus a high pent-up demand in this area, especially due to the shortage of skilled workers in recent years, which continued to drive the construction industry in the reporting year.

Renovations in Germany also continue to be stable and show little sign of being affected by the economic downturn. The reporting year showed that in challenging times, customers tend to focus on long-standing, reliable partners, and the Doors Division benefited significantly from this.

Both the Prüm and Garant production plants in Germany experienced production bottlenecks throughout the year, which was exacerbated by a partially increased sickness rate of up to 10% of the workforce due to quarantine orders. Despite 3-shift operation, capacities are currently insufficient to meet the market demand, which in turn leads to longer delivery times and higher order volumes. With the comprehensive investment programmes, new capacities are continuously being created to counteract this and to continue sustainable participation in the growing German construction market.

In the area of institutional customers, such as housing companies, the division was able to grow strongly in Germany in the reporting year. This is not least due to the cooperation with the Berlin (D) PropTech company KIWI. More than 15 000 residential properties across Germany are now equipped with the digital access system from KIWI. Due to the widespread use of KIWI, the "SmartDOORS" of the Doors Division, which have the digital access system already installed at the factory, are also becoming more important. Among other things, the renowned project "Lindenauer Hafen", which was realised for Deutsche Wohnen, one of Europe's leading real estate companies, was fully equipped with "SmartDOORS" from Prüm.

In Switzerland, the first wave of the pandemic in March/April 2020 led to construction site closures in individual cantons. Despite these negative influences, the division was able to slightly increase its revenue and market shares in this stagnating market. RWD Schlatter has so far focused strongly on the extensive and complex contractor services business. The gradual expansion of the trade business, whose market share was still low in the reporting year, and the newly developed resellers, enabled the division to realise some revenue growth.

The Polish door manufacturer Invado suffered a revenue decline. The lockdowns to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the export markets of France, Italy, and the Czech Republic led to a decrease in demand. In the coming years, the aim is to further increase the market shares with Invado, especially in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

Products, technology, and innovation

One of the most important differentiating features of doors is the edge technology, since this is the most demanding part of the production process. In addition, the edge is also the most exposed part of a door and is subject to the most stress and damage, for example, from impacts. The Doors Division launched a new premium edge in the second half-year of 2019, which has the advantage of a thick edge of 2 millimetres compared to conventional doors, resulting in increased impact resistance and improved protection against damage. By the end of 2020, over 50 000 doors with this new, innovative edge technology had already been sold in Germany under the Prüm brand. In 2021, the sister company Garant will now also include the new premium edge in its product range.

In the context of the new door production hall at Invado in Poland, a test of the new edge system showed positive results. As a result, the company's product range will be expanded to include doors with an applied softforming edge. These represent the standard in the Polish market and are therefore a prerequisite for future growth in this domestic market.

In 2020, the division continued to focus on its multi-year investment programme to increase productivity and improve delivery performance. In total, it recorded an investment volume of around CHF 48 million, the majority of which went into the expansion of the two German production plants and the Polish one.

At Prüm in Weinsheim (D), the new "production plant of the future" is currently being built. The earthworks for the new highly specialised frame plant started in February 2020, and the foundation stone was laid in mid-May. The production hall, including peripheral buildings, will cover an area of 25 000 square metres. The completion and commissioning are targeted for the second or third quarter of 2022. In order to optimise the logistical process handling in the finished parts warehouse and to increase storage capacities in the future, an investment was also made in a second high-bay warehouse at Prüm. The construction measures for this started at the beginning of 2020 and will be completed in the second quarter of 2021. After these investments, around 350 000 more doors with corresponding frames can be produced at this location than before.

One focus of the door manufacturer Garant in the reporting year was on increasing capacities. In the middle of 2020, the new special frame production line was installed, which offers a capacity of 945 frames per day in the special area in 3-shift operation. At the same time, installation of a new spraying robot began. This will automate the process when passing through the painting line.

Part of the investment was also used to increase the vertical integration of RWD Schlatter in Switzerland. For example, the hall expansion started in summer 2019 was successfully completed in October 2020 with the commissioning of the new spraying robot. The doors produced in Roggwil (CH) are now painted by RWD Schlatter itself, which significantly shortens delivery times for customers and reduces logistics. Thanks to this measure, the company has one of the shortest delivery times on the Swiss market. In addition to this insourcing of the painting work, RWD Schlatter has been producing the block and blind frames at its sister company TPO in the Bavarian town of Leutershausen (D) since 2020, following further investments in a modern production line. Previously, this was sourced from a third-party supplier in Switzerland.

In addition to the expansion and modernisation of production capacities, a not insignificant sizeable part of the investments also went to IT and the digitisation of processes. The Doors Division is currently in the process of harmonising its ERP systems and implementing "SAP S/4HANA" throughout the division. This will make future cooperation between the four companies much more efficient. Furthermore, the two companies Prüm and Garant, together with ARBONIA DIGITAL, have advanced the development of a new dealer software. This will be made available to the specialist trade partners from the third quarter of 2021 and will allow them to cooperate much more efficiently with Prüm and Garant in the areas of quotation preparation and order processing. With this new software, the two companies are pursuing the goal of clearly differentiating themselves from the competition by providing their partners with the fastest, most efficient, most intuitive, and most informative quotation programme. The next step will be to extend this software to the two other companies in the division.