Switch to lower-pay countries

Bosch intends to increase the share of production carried out in lower-pay countries. A reorganisation programme for the power tools division also plans cost reductions at the existing locations. “We can’t simply look on while suppliers clean up the markets with increasingly upmarket products manufactured in the Far East,” said Franz Fehrenbach, chairman of the managing board, at a press conference. The downward trend of sales recorded by the power tools division last year provided the background to this statement. The decline turned out to be more pronounced than losses in the consumer goods and building services division altogether, which remained a nominal 3.5 per cent below the previous year’s level at a volume of € 8.4 bn for the year 2003, after adjustment for the newly acquired heating company, Buderus-Heiztechnik.