Successful first half at Schulthess

It has been a positive start to the year for the canton-Zurich based Schulthess Group. Sales grew by more than 24 per cent to SFr69 million in the first half of 2000, compared with SFr55.5 million in the previous year.

Over the same period the group’s profit improved 42.8 per cent to reach SFr6.2 million.

The jump in sales was achieved partly through the acquisition of Novelan AG, which Schulthess bought in 1999, and because of stronger demand at home and abroad.

The Schulthess Group was founded in 1982 and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange in April 1998. It’s the leading Swiss manufacturer and distributor of household and commercial washing machines, tumble dryers and dish washers.

The company reported in a statement that “all parts of the group have contributed to the excellent result in a clearly improved consumption and investment climate”.

“With a continued good market climate in the home market, innovations in the case of household and commercial products, the large number of orders in hand as well as the positive development in export, a clear improvement on last year’s results may be expected,” the company added.

by Tom O’Brien