Our Company
The world’s leading system provider for fire protection 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 2021, the Rosenbauer Group generated revenues of € 975.1 million. The individual product groups contributed to this as follows: Vehicles 76%, Fire & Safety Equipment 9%, Preventive Fire Protection 3%, Customer Service 8% and Other Revenues 4%. With a global market share of 14.8% of late, Rosenbauer is the leading manufacturer of firefighting vehicles. Latest available market data from 2020. Own calculation based on figures from the World Bank and the UN as well as annual reports and expert estimates.
Revenues by product segment 2021
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.
The starting point for business decisions and the controlling of the Group is its medium-term planning, which is produced for a period of three years. The investment budget and the annual budget are derived from this medium-term planning. During the year, the annual budget for the respective areas and the operating companies is monitored for target achievement on a monthly basis using tools including comparisons between target and actual performance, comparisons with the previous year, variance analyses and forecasts.
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”:
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 240 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 € 24.3 million in research and development in 2021 (2020: € 19.9 million). This represents 3.8% (2020: 2.6%) of the relevant net proceeds of in-house production. The capitalization rate was 36.7% (2020: 32.9%) and related to developments in Austria and Germany. 50% (2020: 52%) of development costs in the amount of € 12.2 million (2020: € 10.3 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 2021, research and development activities were focused on the further development of the existing product range and the expansion of the electric vehicle fleet. Due to the pandemic, new products were presented at an international virtual trade show in March 2021. This format offers the advantage of informing customers across all time zones about the new products and exchanging information with them via live chat.
The most important innovations in the reporting year include, the RFC Battery Extinguishing System, an innovative extinguishing system for electric vehicles, the BOROS fire service boots, the HEROS H30 fire service helmet, and the new RTE AX B16 ventilation system. In addition, Rosenbauer began the implementation of the first electric aerial ladder based on the L32A-XS.
Revolutionary Technology – Hybrid municipal vehicles
Firefighting vehicle with an electric drive
With the Revolutionary Technology (RT), Rosenbauer ushered in a new era of firefighting vehicles. Since the beginning of 2021, the fire services from Amsterdam, Berlin, and Dubai have been testing the RT as innovation partners and making the knowledge gained available for series development and production. The first fleet order for four RTs was placed by the Basel-Stadt canton’s professional fire department in the reporting year. In March 2022, the first RTX was delivered to the Los Angeles Fire Department, California. More on the RT on www.rosenbauer.com
Awards for Revolutionary Technology
Rosenbauer is one of the pioneers in product development and is the world market leader in the firefighting field. This is also confirmed by the awards it has received, such as the Austrian State Prize for Innovation. More on that at www.rosenbauer.com.
The RT combines design, user-friendliness, sustainability, and forward-looking technologies that pave the way for fire departments into a sustainable and digital future. This also convinced the Red Dot jury, which presented the RT with the Red Dot Design Award 2021 in the Product Design category.
Rosenbauer estimates the global market for the RT at more than 3,200 vehicles by 2030, with demand coming not only from municipal fire services but also from airport operators and industrial concerns. In Europe, 700 to 800 such firefighting vehicles could already be in active service by 2025.
L32A-XS electrical aerial ladder
Expansion of the electric vehicle fleet
In the reporting year, the electrification of the first L32A-XS aerial ladder on a Volvo FE Electric chassis also marked the start of the expansion of the electric vehicle fleet. The expertise in the field of high-voltage technology acquired over the past few years is being used to a large extent in this development. Functionality and utility have top priority. An electric aerial ladder must be just as functional, powerful and reliable as the tried-and-tested standard aerial ladder. The prototype based on DIN EN 14043:2014 and EN 1846 is to be presented in summer 2022. Schutz & Rettung Zürich, the largest civil rescue organization in Switzerland, is already the first lead customer for the test operation. With the L32A-XS electric aerial ladder, Rosenbauer is underscoring its leading role as a trendsetter in the firefighting industry.
Digital products and services
Rosenbauer Digital Solutions has worked intensively on the further development of its products to improve the digital customer experience. For example, a new dashboard has been developed for RDS Connected Fleet, which allows vehicle and fleet data to be accessed and analyzed in real time. With Connected Command, RDS offers a 360-degree view of all relevant information about the site in real time. All data runs through the secure European RDS cloud.
2022 will see the development of an RDS Connected Command mobile app and investments in increasing the integration of other Rosenbauer and partner products. User growth and increasing customer satisfaction are the key objectives for digital products in positioning Rosenbauer as a technology and innovation leader. More on Digital Solutions www.rosenbauer.com.
Innovative battery-fire extinguishing system for electric vehicles
According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), the number of new registrations of fully electric vehicles in the EU in 2021 increased by 63% compared to the previous year. This equates to approximately 880,000 new vehicles now on Europe’s roads. The ever-increasing number of electric vehicles also presents fire departments with new challenges in firefighting.
Rosenbauer has launched the RFC Battery Extinguishing System, an extinguishing system for fast and safe extinguishing of lithium-ion technology batteries. The extinguishing system brings the extinguishing water exactly where it is needed to cool the cells and modules – directly into the battery housing. For this purpose, the extinguishing mandrel is driven into the battery with a force of several tons and the extinguishing water is discharged directly inside the battery through the perforated extinguishing lance. The water fills the battery housing completely and thus leads to efficient cooling. The water quantity of a normal TLF/HLF is sufficient to ensure that the extinguishing is successful, and a normal pressure pump is enough for the supply of extinguishing water. This ensures very resource-saving extinguishing and reduces the spread of fumes to a minimum.
The emergency services only need to be in the vicinity of the burning vehicle for a short time, as the system can be activated remotely via the control unit. The system thus combines safety for the emergency services and efficiency in firefighting.