Rieter reports growth in difficult economic environment
The Rieter Group, based in Winterthur, reported on Tuesday that its net sales last year exceeded SFr3 billion ($1.77 billion) for the first time.
However, the supplier of systems and services to the textile and automotive industries repeated that its 2001 net profit would not match the 2000 level.
In a statement, Rieter said that sales had increased by 8.1 per cent to SFr3.17 billion, compared with the performance of 2000, driven by a 13.5 per cent increase in textile systems sales revenue.
Rieter had a net profit in 2000 of SFr146 million on sales of SFr2.93 billion.
The group commented that the Asian countries – in particular China – were the main sales drivers in the textile systems business. However, following the boom conditions experienced in 2000, the world market for textile machinery weakened in 2001, it added.
The final figures for the 2000 financial year will be announced on April 10.
swissinfo with agencies
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.