The Car supplier ZF wrote deep red numbers in 2024. The loss was just over a billion euros, as the company in Friedrichshafen announced on Lake Constance. Above all, high provisions for conversion costs of around 600 million euros would have led to the net result. In 2023 the company had made a profit of 126 million euros.
“The year 2024 made it clear how enormous pressure our industry and thus our company is under,” said ZF CEO Holger Klein (55) according to the press release. One encounters the challenges with a plan of measures. These include savings and job cuts. The goal is to inglate ZF and to develop into a more agile and profitable technology leader.
Burglary and loss of sales
ZF is one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers. The group belongs to 93.8 percent of the Zeppelin Foundation, which is led by the Mayor of the City of Friedrichshafen. Like many others, the company suffers from the weak economy and the poor demand – primarily after E-cars.
The group was able to achieve 41.4 billion euros in revenue last year. This is a decline of around 11 percent or 5.2 billion euros compared to the previous year. The adjusted operational result (EBIT) was around 1.5 billion euros, which is around 900 million euros less than 2023.
In the coming years, ZF plans to be up to 14,000 jobs in Germany tear down. As of December 31, 2024, ZF employed 161,631 people worldwide – around 4 percent less than in the previous year. In Germany, the number of employees nominally also decreased by a good 4 percent to just over 52,000. An improvement is not to be expected for the current financial year. In the case of stable exchange rates, the group assumes sales of over 40 billion euros for 2025.