- Improved construction output and order backlog
- Continued focus on digitalisation, sustainability and shortage of skilled workers
- Successful start to 2023 financial year
Ed. Züblin AG, Germany’s market leader in building construction and civil engineering, has closed the 2022 financial year with a successful performance. In a year marked by inflation, uncertainty, increased construction costs and material bottlenecks, ZÜBLIN once again increased its construction output and order backlog, recorded full order books and achieved strong capacity utilisation. The company forecasts stable order development in 2023 and expects an increase in industrial and infrastructure projects to cushion the decline in private residential construction.
The order backlog in the 2022 financial year reached an all-time high after growing by around 2.4% from approx. € 7.6 billion to approx. € 7.8 billion. The order volume increased by around € 300 million in Germany and by nearly € 100 million outside of Europe. In the rest of Europe excluding Germany, ZÜBLIN recorded a decrease of around € 200 million.
ZÜBLIN increased its construction output in the 2022 financial year by approx. 8.4% to around € 4.5 billion. In the previous year, this figure had stood at around € 4.1 billion. Most of the construction work (around € 3.6 billion) was carried out in Germany, while the figure for the rest of Europe was around € 363 million and for the rest of the world around € 526 million.
ZÜBLIN again booked numerous new orders in 2022, with total order intake in the year levelling off at € 4.7 billion. This was 17.5% less than in 2021, an extraordinarily strong year with an exceptionally high order intake that included the acquisition of the large order for the US hospital in Weilerbach.
The largest project acquisitions in Germany in 2022 included:
- New construction of the ONE PLAZA office and business complex in Düsseldorf
- 1.4 km tunnel section for a new underground line in Hamburg
- Renovation, modernisation and conversion of the listed industrial building Peter-Behrens-Bau in Berlin
As at 31 December 2022, the ZÜBLIN Group had a total of 15,256 employees (8,671 in Germany and 6,585 abroad).
Focus on sustainable processes and materials
Digitalisation and sustainability, along with the growing shortage of skilled workers, remain the most important strategic issues for ZÜBLIN in the future. Together with the STRABAG Group and external partners, the Stuttgart-based company is working to make the design-and-build processes more resource-efficient and climate-neutral with the ultimate goal of becoming climate neutral along the entire value chain by 2040. “Work On Progress”, the corporate slogan introduced in 2022, highlights the company’s focus on expanding the materials economy and circularity, reducing carbon emissions and developing new digital applications and processes to the point that they are ready for practical application.
The Esslingen District Office, designed and being built by ZÜBLIN, is an important lighthouse project for recycling-friendly construction. The materials recovered from the old building are reused as much as possible, for example in the building shell, which is mainly made of recycled concrete. Last year, ZÜBLIN also completed its own pilot project for sustainable design and construction at the company’s headquarters in Stuttgart: the Group’s new Innovation Center was built using particularly climate-friendly building materials and technologies. (For more information and lighthouse projects, see Work On Progress.)
ZÜBLIN off to a good start in the 2023 financial year
Against the background of the tense market environment, with rising interest rates and inflation, ZÜBLIN has started the 2023 financial year on a sound and positive footing. Stephan von der Heyde, member of the ZÜBLIN Management Board: “Thanks in part to our broad diversification, we are well positioned this year and expect that investments in infrastructure and orders from industry will compensate for the decline in residential construction.”
The order intake and the order backlog in the first quarter of 2023 were almost at the same level as in the first three months of the previous year. Major new additions to the order books were the tenant fit-out at EDGE East Side Berlin and the turnkey construction of a new production building for medical products in Freiburg, Germany, including an accompanying car park. Construction output showed a slight increase in the first three months of the year.
As at 31 March 2023, ZÜBLIN employed 15,364 people in Germany and abroad, which was 1,050 more than at the same time in the previous year.