Recaro, the global seating company, has reported its 2021 revenues, which reached almost €270 million. This healthy figure was achieved despite the headwinds of a pandemic and geopolitical challenges, and the company says it is in a “very good and robust pole position” to further grow its business sustainably.
In 2021 Recaro Aircraft Seating produced nearly 60,000 aircraft seats across its four global sites, which is slightly more than its production numbers for 2020. The division is continuing its investments in R&D (it allocated more than 10% to R&D in 2021) and has also invested €50 million in a new customer service centre featuring a crash facility and flammability lab.
Recaro credits the financial success to its ‘Touch & Go’ programme, which focuses on cost efficiency as a key measure to manage the effects of the pandemic. The company’s cost efficiency increased by 30% in 2021.
Recaro reports that its Customer Service business is in “full recovery mode”, with its new Sprint pre-configurated economy class seat, (two months from order to delivery), being a significant driver. In business class, its CL6720 seat received the Focus Open Special Mention Award, and the company’s Poland site earned recognition for its commitment to sustainability and strong leadership. The company continues work on expanding its footprint in the economy and business class seat sectors, as well as the regional jet markets.
Despite a difficult market environment, Recaro Aircraft Seating achieved an increase in its NPS (net promoter score) over the period in its annual global customer satisfaction survey.
The activities are being led by Mark Hiller, CEO at Recaro Aircraft Seating, who in early 2022 added the role of CEO of Recaro Holding to his list of responsibilities, while his predecessor and Recaro shareholder, Martin Putsch, moved into his new role as chairman of the Recaro advisory board.
There have been developments beyond the aircraft seating sector, with subsidiary Recaro Gaming selling nearly 10,000 gaming seats in 2021: a 60% increase over its 2021 sales. Recaro Gaming’s newest gaming seat, the Recaro Rae, has been well received by industry publications including PC Magazine, Basic Tutorials, Gameswelt, among others. The company says the increased use of home offices has led to greater interest in the ergonomics of its gaming seats, and expansion plans for Recaro Gaming are in the works, as it has seen interest in its products from countries beyond its current markets of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Another recent development is that Recaro has entered the train seating market, and aims to develop new seating technology and broaden the company’s scope with an acquisition investment of double-digit million Euros in Growag, a Poland-based train seating company.
In related news, Recaro is participating in developments for new mobility solutions such as Hyperloop. Recaro is seeking out ways to enhance seating experiences in such new markets, based on the latest ergonomics requirements.
The company says it also continues to receive industry awards for its commercial vehicle seating activities.
Recaro fans should note that the Recaro Shop is also growing, now shipping Recaro-branded merchandise to nearly 30 European countries. The retail shop anticipates a global expansion before the end of 2022.
“Our global setup enables us to manage a strong market recovery. We are looking ahead to a positive growth outlook, driven by major investments in new technologies and expanding our global footprint into new market segments, like train seating,” said Dr Mark Hiller, CEO at Recaro. “As always our global employees are the company’s most important assets and are the cornerstone of our business success. Thanks to their hard work, we are well-positioned for future progress and advancement.”
