At the start of the new year, let us take a moment to look back on an eventful 2021. Although challenging in many respects, the last year was also full of surprises, successes, and celebrations. Here’s a retrospective on our sustainable growth in numerical terms:
The year 2021 brought a festival of innovations. We launched four new products under the Kahles brand, while SWAROVSKI OPTIK introduced eight (!) new products.
Swarovski Optik
Increased sales
Last year, we achieved consolidated sales of 210.4 million. This is an increase of 28.7 percent compared to 2020. The export ratio was 91 percent.
Since 2008, 182 children have enjoyed the care and beautiful environment of the company kindergarten and creche “Wichtelwald”. Starting off with only 6 employees, the team counts 10 people today.
Last year, 20 children aged 1 to 3 and 20 children aged 3 to 6 years attended the “Wichtelwald”. With emotions running high and noses running from colds, the youngsters and their caretakers used about 27,000 handkerchiefs in 2021. As meals are served, the dishwasher had to run for 1,100+ times.
photovoltaics
Harvesting the power of the sun
Renewable energy sources play an important role in our energy mix. Thus, we have invested in expanding the number of photovoltaic panels at our headquarters. In 2021, we implemented 518 new modules on our walls and roofs. Together, they cover an area of 943 square meters (~ 1,128 square yards). Thus, our peak performance grew by 197 kWp and our annual energy output increased by 220 MWh.
Staying in close contact with our community of nature lovers was of great importance to us. Thus, we organized several online events to nurture and cultivate the relationship with our dealer and customer base as well as press representatives.
To give you an idea, a total of 1,500+ dealers and press representatives participated in online launch events or product trainings in 2021.
Social Media
Fans and followers
At the end of 2021, we registered more than 443,100 fans and followers on our social media channels, which made us very happy.
continues to grow and prosper
Our successful team
From January 1 to December 31, 2021, our headcount in the headquarters in Absam increased from 789 to 836 people. That means an increase of 6 %.
Worldwide (including our sister brand Kahles), 1,043 employees were contributing to SWAROVSKI OPTIK’s success, as of December 31, 2021. Due to our sustainable growth, the number of employees will continue to increase in the upcoming months.
Despite the many additional hires in recent years, the average length of service at the headquarters in Absam is 12.10 years. Loyalty rules!
Currently, 44 apprentices are being trained in Absam in 3 trades: 20 in machining technology, 20 in precision optics, and 4 in automation and process control technology.
We are looking forward to a successful 2022!
