German kitchen furniture manufacturer Rotpunkt has revealed that despite the industry-wide decline in sales of 7% last year, the company was able to maintain its position within core markets, employ 368 people across its 2 sites in Germany, as well as successfully expand into new market categories. All sales figures relate to Rotpunkt furniture and fittings for the kitchen, utility room and dressing room, and the 2024 financial year shows that even with the company recording a 2.4% decline in sales due to losses in the Benelux, Austrian and Swiss regions, Rotpunkt still performed well and experienced new levels of growth towards the latter part of last year.
Andreas Wagner, managing partner at Rotpunkt Küchen, said: “Although we lost sales overall, this was significantly less than the market as a whole. As a result, we were able to maintain our market share in most countries and even increase it in some cases. The difficult overall situation in the European kitchen market is characterised by factors such as weak new construction business, high interest rates on loans and a general reluctance to spend. The fact that we were able to distance ourselves from all the negativity in the market is a positive. However, there is still room for improvement in the sales result.“
The French market for Rotpunkt produced a double-digit sales increase, with sales in Germany, Scandinavia and the UK remaining stable and leading to a slight increase to market share. Internationally, Rotpunkt says it continues to strengthen its business operations with local partners in the contract and retail business now supplying its product offer beyond its core Western European markets.
The most important markets for Rotpunkt in 2024, centred around the Netherlands, Germany and France, followed by the UK, Belgium and Scandinavia (Norway and Denmark). As of 31st December 2024, the company’s export ratio remained consistent at 80%. Rotpunkt forecasts a turnover for the coming year at ‘100 million plus X’ with renewed levels of growth in France, Germany, Scandinavia and the UK in 2025. This projected turnover in part, can be attributed to the significant rise in orders received in November and December 2024.
Progress is also being made with the company’s new logistics hub, which will debut operations in spring 2025! Undergoing comprehensive modernisation, the new building includes advanced logistics, new machinery and complete digitalisation of all areas of the business. Located at the Rotpunkt Bünde site, the new hub was put into operation in March 2023, and further improvements are scheduled over the coming months. Andreas Wagner said: “It's a multi-layered process that builds on each other and raises our company to a more modern and future-proof level.“
Pictured from left to right: Andreas Wagner and Heinz-Jürgen Meyer (both managing partners) and Sven Herden (managing director sales & marketing)
