VDL Group has reported positive financial results for 2018, following planned growth for the Netherlands-based OEM.
VDL said in a statement that its’s combined turnover rose by 18 per cent from €5.049 billion in 2017 to €5.973 billion in 2018. The net result increased by 16 per cent from €153 million in 2017 to €178 million in 2018. During 2018, VDL’s combined order book value (excluding VDL Nedcar) grew by 62 per cent from €768 million to €1.244 billion. The number of employees grew by 771 to 16,854 at the end of 2018.
The Group reportedly has a strong shareholders’ equity and is a financially healthy family business.
For VDL, the year 2018 was also dominated by a large number of special activities, which included 936 support structures that it made for the mirror of the world's largest telescope in Chile, the largest fleet of electric buses entered into service, additional orders for electric buses, the e-truck co-developed with DAF and of course the acquisition of Siemens Hengelo – the 100th VDL company.
“2018 was challenging and demanding,” said VDL Group Chairman, Willem van der Leegte. “Because we succeeded in organising our planned growth, we are satisfied with our performance over the last 12 months.”
November last year, VDL said it completed its acquisition of automation company, Siemens Hengelo.