Our Company
Rosenbauer is the world’s leading system provider for preventive firefighting and disaster protection technology. The international group of companies develops and produces vehicles, fire extinguishing systems, fire and safety equipment and digital solutions for professional, industrial, plant and volunteer fire services and systems for preventive fire protection.
The listed company Rosenbauer International AG based in Leonding, Austria, functions as the parent company of the Rosenbauer Group. It is also the largest production company, the research and development center and is responsible for the management of the Group.
In 2020, the Rosenbauer Group generated revenues of € 1,044.2 million. The individual product groups contributed to this as follows: Vehicles 78%, Fire & Safety Equipment 8%, Preventive Fire Protection 3%, Customer Service 7% and Other Revenues 4%. With a global market share of 16% of late, Rosenbauer is the leading manufacturer of firefighting vehicles.
Revenues by product segment in 2020
OBJECTIVES, STRATEGY AND CONTROLLING
As an industry trendsetter, Rosenbauer helps shape fire and disaster prevention with pioneering innovations and outstanding products. Looking ahead as well, the company aims to break new ground in the development of firefighting technology. Rosenbauer strives to be the best in all areas. Its primary business goal is to achieve sustainably profitable growth and to continuously increase the enterprise value of the company. Rosenbauer benefits from the company’s strengths in implementing this claim to leadership:
- a resilient business model with a high proportion of public-sector customers;
- its global presence and comprehensive service offer as the only system provider for preventive firefighting and disaster protection technology;
- its role as an innovation and technology leader;
- its strong, vertical integration and industrial production methods;
- the international reputation of the Rosenbauer brand; and
- its skilled and dedicated employees.
Rosenbauer is conscious of its particular social responsibility as a provider of equipment to fire services whose members show a high level of social commitment. The group of companies therefore also takes non-financial factors from the areas of the environment, human resources and compliance into account in its business activities, places great emphasis on sustainability and maintains continuous dialog with its stakeholders (see “Rosenbauer Sustainability Report” at www.rosenbauer.com).
Unique, global network
The Rosenbauer Group operates 15 production locations in nine countries on three continents and meets all major world standards with products manufactured in Europe, the US and Asia. It also has its own sales and service companies in 14 countries as well as approximately 220 independent trading partners around the world.
Overall, Rosenbauer is represented in around 120 countries and therefore has an international network that is unique in the firefighting industry.
Number one for innovations
With its innovative products, Rosenbauer wants to define state-of-the-art technology and actively develop customer demand. Accordingly, research and development are of central importance to the Group. The Rosenbauer innovation process systematically integrates industry-relevant megatrends, findings from market observation, customers’ requirements and employees’ suggestions. The Rosenbauer Group holds around 220 patents in the various segments.
The Group invested € 19.9 million in research and development in 2020 (2019: € 20.2 million). This represents 2.6% (2019: 3.0%) of the relevant net proceeds of in-house production. The capitalization rate was 32.9% (2019: 34.4%) and related to developments in Austria and Germany. 52% (2019: 53%) of development costs in the amount of € 10.3 million (2019: € 10.8 million) were incurred by Rosenbauer International AG, the Group-wide center of expertise for municipal and specialty vehicles, firefighting systems and safety equipment.
Research and development/R&D ratio
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
In 2020, research and development activities were focused on finalizing the product innovations that Rosenbauer wanted to present at the world’s leading trade fair, Interschutz. The international industry get-together usually takes place every five years in Germany and was postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rosenbauer launched its innovations on the market nevertheless and presented them at regional trade fairs and in new virtual formats such as the Online Product Days.
The most important innovations include the RT (Revolutionary Technology), the first Rosenbauer firefighting vehicle with an electric drive, new digital products (RTE robot and fire service drones) and services (Connected Fleet), a completely new series of municipal vehicles (CT, AT, MT) with standardized operation, the L32A-XS Flat aerial ladders and the B45 hydraulic firefighting and rescue platform as well as the RFC Admix Variomatic proportioning system from the Firefighting Systems area and the new RTE FX nozzle from the Equipment area.
Revolutionary Technology – Hybrid municipal vehicles
Firefighting vehicle with an electric drive
After eight years of development work, the year under review saw the market launch of the Rosenbauer firefighting vehicle with an electric drive – a milestone in the history of the company. It was possible to follow the launch event at the Ars Electronica Center in Linz via live stream. The unveiling attracted worldwide attention. The highlight was the handover of the first three pre-series vehicles to the fire services from Amsterdam, Berlin and Dubai. As innovation partners, they will test the vehicles in normal use and make the insights gained in the process available for series development and production. More information about the RT see: www.rosenbauer.com
Rosenbauer aerial ladder simulator
Digital products and services
Digitalization and interconnection are playing an ever greater role in everyday fire service operations. In 2020, Rosenbauer pooled its expertise in the new area of Digital Solutions and added drones and robots to its product range. The drones originate from the global market leader DJI, are equipped with cameras and sensors and are fully integrated in the Rosenbauer deployment management system. They provide the aerial perspective of incident scenes that was previously lacking and fire services primarily use them for reconnaissance, locating hotspots and detecting hazardous substances. The Rosenbauer deployment management system shows the drone images and sensor data on the tablets and vehicle displays of the operational units as well as on the monitors in the command centers.
The multifunctional RTE Robot is an in-house development that reached series maturity in the reporting year and was presented for the first time as part of the RT launch event. The electrically powered and remote-controlled robotic vehicle can be used in a number of ways: It can carry out logistical tasks, especially the transportation of heavy equipment; it can be equipped with sensors and cameras and used for reconnaissance; it can be used as a recovery vehicle; and, with various turret modules available, it can be used as an extinguishing robot. With its standardized platform complete with quick coupling system, it accepts any type of payload with roughly the same dimensions as a Euro-pallet and therefore appeals not only to fire services, but to every emergency service that has to perform logistical tasks.
Also completed in the year under review was the development of Connected Fleet, the Rosenbauer vehicle information system based on service4fire with new hardware and software, a new user interface and new functions. Connected Fleet monitors the technical condition and operational readiness of emergency vehicles and of the components installed in them (e.g. the RTE Robot) and automatically reports faults and other service information to the vehicle operator. In addition, it provides real-time information on the live position of the vehicles and the condition of their equipment, for example, and prepares full documentation concerning the deployment. This means that fire services have a complete overview of their vehicle fleet at all times and can manage it digitally with Connected Fleet (e.g. electronic journey log). More information about Digital Solutions see: www.rosenbauer.com
Harmonized vehicle series
With the introduction of new municipal vehicle series, another long-term development project was concluded in the reporting year. The CT is the new compact class between 3.5 and 14 metric tons, the new MT covers the weight class for vehicles exceeding 18 metric tons, and between them is the AT premium vehicle, which was admittedly not newly developed in its entirety, but was harmonized with the other two series. Now the CT, AT and MT not only share the same design language, they also have standardized operating systems. This reduces the amount of training that fire services need to conduct, makes it easier to switch between different vehicle types in larger fleets and offers decisive advantages with regard to the supply of spare parts.
New firefighting systems
Last year, Rosenbauer also finalized and launched numerous new developments from the area of firefighting systems. Most notably, these include the RFC Admix Variomatic direct-injection foam proportioning system, the new generation of POLY extinguishing systems and the RFC CAFS Cube compressed air foam system. The Variomatic is installed in municipal firefighting vehicles and, depending on requirements, produces wetting agent or light, medium or heavy foam during operations. The POLY extinguishing systems are portable or wheeled fire extinguishers that are ideal for swiftly and efficiently fighting small and incipient fires based on the CAFS technology. The new CAFS Cube is a compact all-in-one extinguishing system for water, foam and CAFS operations that can be used on the move and, thanks to its own engine, can also be installed in vehicles that do not have a power take-off.
In addition, Rosenbauer completed the development of the N130 truck-mounted pump in the reporting year. With a standard output of 13,000 l/min (3,500 gpm) and a maximum output of 20,000 l/min (5,285 gpm; with an input pressure of 4 bar), it is Rosenbauer’s most powerful fire extinguishing pump and is predestined for installation in industrial firefighting vehicles.
Innovative battery-fire extinguishing system
In light of the growing trend towards electric vehicles, Rosenbauer has been carrying out research on the topic of high-voltage battery fires since 2018. Following intensive fundamental research, numerous fire-extinguishing experiments involving various cell types and battery capacities were carried out last year, the scientific evaluation of which confirmed the efficacy and efficiency of the system developed. It is currently being tested in everyday operations by lead customers ahead of its market launch in mid-2021.
Unlike all of the established solutions, the system can be operated with standard fire extinguishing technology and used immediately by every fire service around the world with no significant training required beforehand. It is operated from a safe distance, does not bring about any excessive consumption of water and can be retrofitted universally for a reasonable price.