The launch of the Nordex N117 marks the beginning of a new product cycle. The company says the turbine is successful because of its efficiency in light-wind locations.
“Over the next five years, we want to increase our annual sales to around €1.5 billion and generate a margin of over 5%,” says Nordex CEO Dr. Jürgen Zeschky . The group is aiming for sales of up to €1.1 billion in the current year. Seven months after taking up his position, Zeschky together with the other members of the Management Board unveiled the wind turbine manufacturer’s new corporate strategy. With a sales strategy targeted at selected customer groups and market segments, Nordex plans to grow at a slightly faster rate than the market as a whole over the next few years. Analysts at MAKE Consulting expect sales volumes in the wind power industry to annually expand by 6% on average in the medium term.
Looking forward, Nordex’s target customers will comprise large utilities and increasingly smaller developers as well as mid-size operators and private-equity investors. The latter group will be a particular focus of the “Project Development” business unit. This distribution channel is to grow more quickly than conventional new business. Nordex is strengthening its skills in turn-key management for this business in particular so that it is able to supply a greater volume of turnkey wind farms. The company plans to harness additional growth potential from the service business and is expanding its activities in this area.
“We are generating attractive margins in this segment in particular and are thus able to make an important contribution to improving our profitability,” says Chief Customer Officer Lars Bondo Krogsgaard.
Additional significant initiatives include strengthening the purchasing and engineering departments. The company wants to lower its product costs by a double-digit percentage. To this end, suppliers are to be integrated closely in the product development.
“In engineering and partnerships with suppliers, the goal must always be to strike an intelligent balance between costs, quality, and efficiency,” says Zeschky. In this way, Nordex says it will concentrate on development of wind turbines which are capable of operating at grid parity and competing internationally with fossil-fuel power stations. “The launch of the Nordex N117 marked the beginning of a new product cycle. The company says the turbine is enjoying great success due to its efficiency in light-wind locations. We must now increase product development speed,” adds Zeschky.
“Looking over the next few years, we are aiming for a neutral free cash flow,” says CFO Bernard Schäferbarthold. This will be underpinned by strict working capital management, a strategy which has already proved to be successful in the first quarters of the year.
Nordex SE
Nordex-online.com
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