Layher achieves fast recovery

Scaffolding manufacturer Layher reported a turnover last year that almost matched the company's peak year.

Managing director Dr Helmut Kreller told Access International that Layher's family ownership allowed it to maintain investment through the crisis and make a quick recovery.

At the start of the crisis Layher was deciding to build a new factory. "It is because all our shareholders are close to the business that we can make long term decisions," said Dr Kreller.

The new factory now houses the wood and aluminium part of Layher's production while the steel scaffolding continues at the original plant, very close by, with its modern, environmentally sensitive, dip galvanising facility.

Although unwilling to divulge exact figures Layher's turnover for the year ending 31 March 2011 is somewhere between €400 and €500 million. During the crisis its domestic German market grew, but now Dr Kreller says that exports are again starting to rise, accounting for 60% of the company's turnover.

Committed to continuing to manufacturing in Germany, Dr Kreller was prepared to acknowledge that Layher had considered manufacturing elsewhere, but should that decision be made sometime in the future it would only be to serve those external markets.

Read more about Layher, the products, philosophy and production in the July/August issue of Access International.