News › ZEISS · Sta­ble, dou­ble-digit growth in the first half of the finan­cial year

ZEISS was able to con­ti­nue the high level of inco­ming orders and reve­nue in the first half of the new fis­cal year with solid growth momen­tum across all four divisions.

  • Half-year reve­nue again above prior-year level
  • All four ZEISS divi­si­ons con­tri­bute to growth
  • Rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment expen­ses amount to 14.5% of revenue
  • High invest­ments in future poten­tial worldwide
  • Num­ber of employees increa­ses by 6% to more than 40,000 for the first time

The ZEISS Group’s sta­ble, dou­ble-digit growth con­tin­ued across all four ZEISS divi­si­ons in the first half of fis­cal year 2022/23 (balance sheet date: March 31, 2023). Half-year reve­nue rea­ched €4,836 mil­lion (+18% vs. prior year) – ear­nings before inte­rest and taxes (EBIT) also excee­ded the very good level of the prior year at €917 mil­lion (+€181 mil­lion vs. prior year). Expen­dit­ure on rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment con­tin­ued to rise and now accounts for 14.5% of sales. The num­ber of employees increased by 6% to 41,259 worldwide.

»We are con­ti­nuing the dyna­mic growth of the ZEISS Group from the pre­vious year in the first half of 2022/23,« said Dr. Karl Lam­precht, CEO of ZEISS. »Our high expen­dit­ure on rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment and our invest­ments in glo­bal infra­struc­ture are important ele­ments of our long-term growth stra­tegy and sup­port the posi­tive deve­lo­p­ment of the company.«

Busi­ness deve­lo­p­ment and key figures

Deve­lo­p­ment of the divisions

1st half 2022/23 Sales (in mil­lion euros)
1st half 2021/22 Sales (in mil­lion euros)
Change (adjus­ted for cur­rency effects) Sales (in mil­lion euros)

Semi­con­duc­tor Manu­fac­tu­ring Technology

1.656

1.170

+41% (+41%)

Indus­trial Qua­lity & Research

1.139

1.056

+8% (+7%)

Medi­cal Technology*

1.175

1.057

+11% (+10%)

Con­su­mer Markets

796

770

+3% (+2%)

* Not iden­ti­cal with the Carl Zeiss Medi­tec Group.

All four ZEISS divi­si­ons con­tri­bu­ted to growth in the first half of fis­cal year 2022/23. The still chal­len­ging geo­po­li­ti­cal and macroe­co­no­mic con­di­ti­ons are having a vary­ing impact on the busi­ness areas. The importance of resi­li­ent and diver­si­fied sup­ply chains con­ti­nues to grow.

The direct-to-mar­ket busi­nesses recor­ded posi­tive sales and order intake deve­lo­p­ment in the first half of the cur­rent fis­cal year, out­per­forming the pre­vious year. The reason for this is the con­tin­ued high demand for ZEISS pro­ducts and solu­ti­ons. The Medi­cal Tech­no­logy divi­sion achie­ved very good half-year reve­nue, with the two stra­te­gic busi­ness units Micro­sur­gery and Oph­thal­mo­logy con­tri­bu­ting to growth. The Indus­trial Qua­lity & Rese­arch (IQR) divi­sion also con­tin­ued its good growth momen­tum in the first two quar­ters of the cur­rent fis­cal year. The two busi­ness units Indus­trial Qua­lity Solu­ti­ons and Rese­arch Micro­scopy Solu­ti­ons con­tri­bu­ted to this. The Con­su­mer Mar­kets divi­sion was able to gene­rate solid sales growth in the first half of 2022/23, with a slightly impro­ved but chal­len­ging mar­ket situation.Despite the cur­rent slow­down in the semi­con­duc­tor mar­ket, the high demand for the pro­ducts of the Semi­con­duc­tor Manu­fac­tu­ring Tech­no­logy (SMT) divi­sion remains unch­an­ged and has a major influence on the strong sales growth in this area.

The regi­ons con­tri­bu­ted to the con­tin­ued growth course to vary­ing degrees. The EMEA region impro­ved its sales growth and the AMERICAS and APAC regi­ons also con­tin­ued their sales growth.
Rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment expen­ses amoun­ted to 14.5 per­cent of sales (702 mil­lion euros) in the first half of 2022/23. This is a new all-time high. The company’s equity increased to 7,460 mil­lion euros (Sep­tem­ber 30, 2022: 7,173 mil­lion euros), with an equity ratio of 56%. Invest­ments in pro­perty, plant and equip­ment amoun­ted to 569 mil­lion euros.

»The half-year results show that ZEISS is in a very sta­ble and finan­ci­ally strong posi­tion and at the same time con­ti­nues to invest hea­vily in the future – this also includes incre­asing capa­ci­ties, for exam­ple, by expan­ding infra­struc­ture and staff,« said Dr. Chris­tian Mül­ler, CFO of Carl Zeiss AG.

At the end of the first half of the year, ZEISS employed 41,259 peo­ple (as of March 31, 2023), which is 6% more than at the begin­ning of the fis­cal year and for the first time more than 40,000 employees worldwide.

Out­look

Due to the uncer­tain geo­po­li­ti­cal and macroe­co­no­mic envi­ron­ment, it remains dif­fi­cult to assess how the glo­bal eco­no­mic situa­tion will develop.
»If the mar­kets con­ti­nue to deve­lop in a sta­ble man­ner, we expect all four ZEISS divi­si­ons to be able to con­ti­nue their growth in the second half of the fis­cal year. This growth is also reflec­ted in per­son­nel requi­re­ments, where we are curr­ently loo­king to fill around 2,000 vacan­cies in Ger­many alone, for exam­ple, in order to con­ti­nue to have the capa­city to sup­port cus­to­mers world­wide with inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons,« said Lamprecht.

May 16th, 2023

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