Bosch invests more than £300m in UK and Ireland

• Acquisitions bring Bosch’s investment in the region to more than £300 million (€353 million) in past 12 months
• Bosch takes advantage of UK’s position as an innovation hub
• Bosch UK sales increase to £3.0 billion (€3.55 bn) in 2021
• Inflationary pressure points to a challenging year ahead

Denham – Bosch, a leading global supplier of technology and services, has invested more than £300 million (€353 million) in the UK and Ireland in the past 12 months. The investment underlines the impactful presence that Bosch has in the two countries. The UK is an increasingly important centre of innovation for Bosch in areas such as advanced electronics, automated driving, and hydrogen technology. The company also has a strong manufacturing footprint here.

In 2021, the company registered £3.0 billion (just over €3.55 billion) in annual sales in the region – an increase of 9.2 percent compared to 2020, after adjustments for exchange rate effects.

Vonjy Rajakoba, Managing Director of Bosch UK, said: “We’ve had a busy 12 months that have shown how firm Bosch’s commitment to the UK and Ireland is. We’ve invested a substantial amount of money with two major and very exciting acquisitions in Protec and Five, and together they give the Bosch Group a wealth of expertise that will enable us to further drive innovation, manufacturing excellence, and expand our business.

“Innovation and designing products that enhance people’s lives is a real strength of Bosch and with these acquisitions we’re doing that on an even greater scale here in the UK. Like all businesses we have faced challenging times recently but as Bosch’s second largest market in Europe we continue to grow and develop.”

Development of Bosch UK business sectors

Bosch’s automotive business had a mixed result in 2021, with the automotive aftermarket business showing a double-digit increase year-on-year while the OEM business trended downwards due to the semiconductor shortage and the decline in the number of vehicles being built. Strong results were posted by the Consumer Goods division, which comprises of Power Tools and BSH, with both divisions posting a double-digit increase. The Worcester Bosch division enjoyed a successful 2021 and posted its second highest sales year on record.

While 2021 was a success for Bosch in the UK and Ireland, the company is urging caution through 2022. This year was always expected to be more challenging, but this has been exacerbated by the increased inflationary pressure being felt across the country along with the general uncertainty the war in Ukraine will have across the economy and supply chains.

How Bosch’s people will drive our ongoing success in the UK and Ireland

Being able to secure the best associates to continue developing innovative products and services is a pivotal reason for Bosch’s investment in the UK and Ireland. Bosch has recognised that taking advantage of the highly educated workforce and the skills of our suppliers will enable us to continue to develop products that enhance people’s quality of life.

Bosch UK is also focusing on the skills and competencies that its workforce of the future will require. This includes enhancing digital skills, such as how artificial intelligence is being included in Bosch’s products, and developing better workplace practices, such as stronger collaboration within hybrid teams working across our 50 locations.

Bosch Group: Outlook for 2022 and strategic course

In 2021, Bosch achieved significant growth in sales and result despite a difficult environment. In the first quarter of 2022, the sales revenue of the supplier of technology and services rose 5.2 percent. For the year as a whole, Bosch expects sales to grow more than 6 percent, and to achieve an EBIT margin in the range of 3 to 4 percent – and this despite the likelihood of considerable burdens, especially due to rising costs for energy, raw materials, and logistics. “The successful outcome of the 2021 business year bolsters our confidence as we tackle the challenging environment of the current year,” said Dr. Stefan Hartung, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH. One of the considerable uncertainties is the war in Ukraine and all its implications. In his view, the current situation highlights the pressure on policymakers and society to become less dependent on fossil fuels and to vigorously pursue the development of new sources of energy. For this reason, he said, the Bosch Group is systematically continuing its efforts to mitigate global warming, despite the challenging economic environment. In addition, Hartung announced Bosch will be investing some three billion euros over three years in climate-neutral technology such as electrification and hydrogen.

He believes electrification is the fastest route to climate neutrality, provided it is based on green electricity. That is why Bosch is driving sustainable mobility forward: in 2021, the company’s orders relating to electromobility exceeded ten billion euros for the first time.

But Hartung also stressed that hydrogen is needed as well. “Industrial policy should focus on making all sectors of the economy hydrogen-ready,” he said. In the interest of effective climate action, Bosch is also entering the components business for hydrogen electrolysis. The company plans to invest nearly 500 million euros in this new area of business by the end of the decade, half of it by the time of market launch, which is planned for 2025. At the same time, the Bosch chairman announced that, over the next three years, the company will be investing another ten billion euros in digitally transforming its business. “Digitalisation also has a special role to play in sustainability – and our solutions start from this premise,” Hartung said. This year alone, moreover, Bosch plans to take on 10,000 new software engineers worldwide.

Note to Editors

Globally, the UK is Bosch’s fourth largest market and is its second largest within Europe, after Germany.

Recent investments in the UK and Ireland include:

August 2021: Bosch opened its Automotive Research & Development Centre in Limerick, Ireland. The focus of the activities in Limerick will be on state-of-the-art automotive electronics, for example the centre will develop Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) such as Automatic Emergency Braking, as well as the radar sensors and semiconductors that are needed to bring this technology to new cars around the world.

September 2021: Bosch subsidiary ETAS opened its Centre of Excellence for Embedded Software in York. This is an extension of the existing ETAS facility and represents a £1.6 million (€1.8 million) investment. The expanded centre will develop the middleware that will power future generations of advanced autonomous and highly automated vehicles. It will contribute to the realisation of Bosch and ETAS’s vision of accident-free driving around the world.

November 2021: Bosch acquired Protec Fire & Security. The company’s innovative product portfolio and services are used in numerous sectors, for example in industry, airports, and railway stations, and will strengthen the European business for fire detection in Bosch Building Technologies Sector. Protec employs around 1,100 people and had a turnover of around £125 million (€142 million) in 2021.

April 2022: Bosch announced it will acquire Five, the start-up that specialises in autonomous driving. Five’s technology will complement Bosch’s existing automated driving expertise and the two companies share a common vision of automated driving and of safe automated driving systems. The acquisition of Five is subject to regulatory approval.

April 2022: Bosch UK announced its acquisition of a new office building within Broadwater Park in Denham. Bosch UK’s headquarters have been based at Broadwater Park since 1984 and it has now acquired the whole site. Bosch will move multiple divisions into the new office once it has been refitted to include the latest Bosch technology, which will ensure it has high levels of energy efficiency and is wholly sustainable. Bosch’s 400 locations all around the world, including in the UK, have been net zero since 2020.

Contact person for press enquiries:

James Bolton: +44 1895 87-8049
James.Bolton@uk.bosch.com
Twitter: @BoschUK
LinkedIn: @Bosch UK

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 402,600 associates worldwide (as of December 31, 2021). The company generated sales of 78.7 billion euros in 2021. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. As a leading IoT provider, Bosch offers innovative solutions for smart homes, Industry 4.0, and connected mobility. Bosch is pursuing a vision of mobility that is sustainable, safe, and exciting. It uses its expertise in sensor technology, software, and services, as well as its own IoT cloud, to offer its customers connected, cross-domain solutions from a single source. The Bosch Group’s strategic objective is to facilitate connected living with products and solutions that either contain artificial intelligence (AI) or have been developed or manufactured with its help. Bosch improves quality of life worldwide with products and services that are innovative and spark enthusiasm. In short, Bosch creates technology that is “Invented for life.” The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 440 subsidiary and regional companies in some 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Bosch’s global manufacturing, engineering, and sales network covers nearly every country in the world. With its more than 400 locations worldwide, the Bosch Group has been carbon neutral since the first quarter of 2020. The basis for the company’s future growth is its innovative strength. At 128 locations across the globe, Bosch employs some 76,100 associates in research and development, of which more than 38,000 are software engineers.

Additional information is available online at www.bosch.com, www.iot.bosch.com, www.bosch-press.com, www.twitter.com/BoschPresse.