Brassware manufacturer Hansgrohe has reported its most successful financial year in the company’s 120-year history and is aiming for “above market” growth in 2022.

The group generated sales of €1.365 billion, which represents a growth of 27% compared to the previous year (€1.074 billion).

The operating profit increased to €249.7 million, which was also an increase of 27% compared to the previous year (€197.0 million).

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Hansgrohe generated around 74% of its sales internationally in 2021, which was a single percentage point higher than in the previous year, but its native market in German was responsible for the largest share in sales (€349million).

Compared to 2020 (€291 million), sales in Germany increased by nearly 20%, while growth in international business was nearly 30% higher than in the previous year due, in large part, to the Chinese and US markets.

Added to this were sales from Dutch company Easy Sanitary Solutions (ESS), which the group acquired at the end of 2020.

Chairman of the Hansgrohe executive board Hans Juergen Kalmbach commented the “extraordinary” results were achieved despite high demand and supply challenges of raw materials.

The company appointed 650 people worldwide in 2021, totaling 5.373 employees around the globe, and each received an incentive payment at a cost of €5million for the company.

Last year, the Hansgrohe Group was awarded Top Employer 2021 seal for working conditions, and the company has already received this award again in 2022.

Despite current political and economic uncertainties, the Hansgrohe Group is sticking to its planned investment of up to €85million in a tap factory in Valjevo, Serbia, with production expected by the end of 2023.

“With this investment, we’re reinforcing our production network in Europe,” said Hans Juergen Kalmbach.

“It’s part of our global production strategy to keep supply chains and transport routes short and secure.”

At the same time, the company is also investing in its existing German locations, with a €12million modernisation of its Schiltach factory beginning in mid-2022, to produce its Axor brand.

Its Alpirsbach location is also being renovated and will operate as an Innovation Park in summer 2022.

All German sites are climate neutral in terms of direct emissions and energy consumption and, by the end of 2022, all international sites will follow.

The Hansgrohe Group invested a total of €51.3 million in 2021 and, as well as factory modernisation, funds were also dedicated to production.

Kalmbach stated the industry would continue to be shaped by the effects of the pandemic, with material shortages and increase in energy costs.

At the beginning of March, and because of the conflict in the Ukraine, the Hansgrohe Group stopped all its sales activities within Russia until further notice.

Although the direct effects are not expected to be high for the company, the indirect effects of the war on the global economy, energy prices and inflation are more difficult to predict, reported Hansgrohe.

However, Kalmbach stated the company had set “ambitious” goals in terms of “above-market” sales growth and increased efficiency for 2022.