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Interviews
Interviews
IMPONDERABLES ARE INCREASING
THE CFO OF VILLEROY & BOCH ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE WEAKNESS OF THE RUSSIAN
ROUBLE, PLAGIARISMS AND THE LACKING OF YOUNG FITTERS
Interview with Dr. Markus Warncke, CFO of Villeroy & Boch, Börsen-Zeitung, March 12, 2016, article provided by
GEFIU, Association of Chief Financial Officers Germany
Dr. Warncke, are you of the opinion that Villeroy &
Boch is a world-wide corporation group with a world-
famous trade mark or a traditional respectively family
business?
All in one. We are a world-wide corporation group
considering that we are represented in 125 countries.
Nobody would deny the fact that Villeroy & Boch is a
world-famous trademark. We are surely in a position
to call ourselves a traditional business founded in
1748. As the common stock is owned by the founder’s
descendants and further, a family member is part of
the board of management – Nicolas Luc Villeroy is
responsible for the division tableware – it is no question
that we are a family company.
In your opinion, what does the brand Villeroy & Boch
stand for concerning the consumer? Sanitary ware,
products relating to eating or – as described by your
company – lifestyle?
Personally, I regard the notion of lifestyle as too wide.
With this, we also wanted to express our designer-
competence. But the average customer is certainly
thinking of our wash basins, water-toilets, bath- and
shower-trays, bathroom fittings and tiles respectively
dishes, cutlery ware and glasses at first.
Villeroy had reached an operating profit of 42 million
Euro. This is the highest amount since more than
10 years and an increase, regarding the annual
comparison, of nearly 10%. What are the reasons?
There have essentially been two reasons: on the one
hand the increase of revenues of 4.9% to 803.8 million
Euro – the highest value since six years – and on the
other hand the efficiency increasing concerning our
plants which led to a decreasing of the manufacturing
costs, this caused a margin improvement. Further, the
revenue quality increased, which means that the part of
higher margin products increased while the part of low-
margin articles decreased.
For this year, you are targeting an improvement of 5 to
10 %. What is the optimism based on?
It is based on the aspects which have already led to
the upward trend in 2015 as for the current year, we
are assuming an increase in turnover as well as an
improvement in process efficiency. Further, there will be
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