Aircraft seating manufacturer, Recaro has announced that its 2018 revenues grew by 22% to reach almost €600 million – this marks more than 15 years of non-stop, double-digit growth during a period when the global passenger seat market grew by approximately 5% per year.
Dr Mark Hiller, CEO of Recaro Aircraft Seating said of the financial results, “2018 was a tremendously successful year for Recaro. Over the past 15 years we grew approximately 10% annually, twice the rate of the market. Last year, however, we outperformed the industry four times and grew 22%. I am extremely happy to say we pulverized all our previous revenue records.”
Recaro has stated that it intends to invest 10% of this positive revenue back into the company to fuel further growth. This investment will be partly used to further company expansion in Germany and globally and partly to enable extra investment in research and development. Recaro is already a market leader in the economy class seating segment, and this plan is to help Recaro achieve its goal of eventually also becoming the number one supplier in the business class seat market.
To increase its footprint in the industry Recaro has also launched the space2grow project. This project envisages expansion of the company’s headquarters in Schwaebisch Hall, Germany and other locations over the next five years. Opening cut2dress, a new dress cover site in Poland in November 2018, formed part of the space2grow project. The first dress covers produced by this new site are already flying with airlines.
The revenue growth is also enabling Recaro to invest in staff and create additional positions. Recaro hired 430 new employees globally in 2018, which brought the total number of staff to 2,600 people. In 2019 the company plans to increase the global headcount to approximately 3,000. In Germany alone the aircraft seat manufacturer will hire more than 100 employees.