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Mission 26: GEA presents growth strategy for the next five years

  • Organic sales to grow by an average of 4.0 to 6.0 percent annually through 2026
  • Record EBITDA margin before restructuring charges of more than 15 percent expected by 2026
  • Tapping new opportunities in the dynamic New Food market and the service business to drive profitable growth
  • Company commits to ambitious climate and sustainability targets

LONDON, UK – EQS Newswire – 29 September 2021 – GEA Group presents today its “Mission 26” strategy in London as part of its Capital Markets Day. The plan for the next five years defines seven key levers to accelerate sustainable, profitable growth. The focus is on sustainability, innovation and digital solutions, New Food, as well as excellence initiatives in sales, service and operations. The company is also looking at targeted acquisitions.

“We have set ourselves the goal of being at the forefront of the mechanical and plant engineering industry,” says Stefan Klebert, CEO GEA. “We take it upon ourselves to protect future generations by offering sustainable solutions for the food and pharmaceutical industries. In these attractive markets, we want to continue to grow profitably while contributing to a better world, as anchored in our purpose – engineering for a better world.”

Ambitious financial targets set for 2026
“Mission 26” sets ambitious financial targets for 2026. Organic sales growth of 4.0 to 6.0 percent per year is expected, leading to sales of around EUR 6 billion (FY 2020: EUR 4.635 billion). The EBITDA margin before restructuring expenses is projected to grow to a record level of more than 15 percent (FY 2020: 11.5%). The Group-wide return on capital employed (ROCE) is anticipated to increase significantly to over 30 percent (FY 2020: 17.1%).

In the context of further targets, a stable ratio of net working capital to sales of 8.0 to 10.0 percent is expected by 2026. Capital expenditure (CAPEX) is projected to be around EUR 200 million annually until 2026. Overall, this leads to strong free cash flow generation of around EUR 2 billion from 2022 until 2026.

“We are creating significant value for our shareholders through 2026 and beyond,” says Marcus Ketter, CFO. “Our shareholders will participate in this success with sustainable dividend increases.”

Holistic climate and sustainability approach
In June 2021, GEA presented its interim targets for reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions alongside its net zero ambition for 2040. Greenhouse gas emissions in Scopes 1 and 2 are to be reduced by 60 percent and in Scope 3 by 18 percent by 2030 (base year 2019). The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the globally recognized independent body for reviewing climate targets, validated GEA’s CO2 reduction targets in September 2021. SBTi thus confirms that GEA’s interim targets follow the latest climate science and make an effective contribution to achieving the 1.5-degree Celsius target of the Paris Climate Agreement.

In addition to the climate targets already communicated, GEA has set ambitious ESG targets. Combined, these measures focus on environmentally sustainable customer solutions and responsible operations. Furthermore, GEA aims to be the employer of choice in the industry.

“Sustainability is firmly anchored in the company’s DNA and is therefore also an essential part of Mission 26,” says Klebert. “With our ambitious approach, we help our customers achieve their own environmental goals. Likewise, we strive for the highest standards in our operations and support our employees in developing their skills. In this way, we live up to our social responsibility and ensure GEA’s lasting success.”

GEA drives product innovation with R&D and digitalization
“Innovation & Digitalization” are also expected to make a significant contribution to realizing the goals of “Mission 26”. Here, GEA aims to increase the proportion of sales of products that are less than five years old – from the current level of 10 percent to about 30 percent. To fuel this development, GEA will increase its research & development spending by approximately 45 percent over the next few years.

In addition to introducing new products, GEA will offer customers more digital solutions to further enhance their processes and GEA machine efficiency. To drive the digital customer journey and the development of digital solutions forward, these competencies haven been combined under the newly created position of Chief Digital Officer (CDO), effective August 1, 2021.

Growth market New Food: GEA with unique position
In the dynamically growing New Food market, GEA will expand its already strong position and become a market leader. Here, the company intends to leverage its strengths in scaling industrial applications and its unique position as a full-line supplier. GEA anticipates order intake for newly developed and existing machines from this segment to exceed EUR 400 million per year by 2026. “Consumer expectations around food are changing. For example, environmental impact and animal welfare are increasingly prioritized, and demand for high-quality, protein-rich foods is growing rapidly. GEA is optimally positioned to meet this demand,” explains Klebert.

GEA has already demonstrated its strength in this dynamic market by winning one of the largest orders in the company’s history: Novozymes, the world’s largest supplier of enzyme and microbial technologies in Denmark, is entrusting GEA with the turnkey fitting of a large-scale plant in the U.S. to produce plant-based proteins.

Excellence initiatives in sales, service and operations

Further growth opportunities for “Mission 26” lie in sales, service, purchasing and production. In GEA’s regions and countries, sales effectiveness and presence will be better exploited by deploying more of the company’s own sales staff in key markets. Sales of new machines are expected to grow by 4.0 to 5.0 percent per year until 2026.

Further growth potential was also identified in the service area, which is a resilient and profitable business for GEA. The aim is to increase coverage and expand the service business with customers by 2026, thereby boosting recurring revenue. This approach is expected to generate annual organic revenue growth of 5.0 to 6.0 percent in the service business until 2026.

The optimization measures announced at the 2019 Capital Markets Day impacting purchasing, production and logistics will be continued. In the process, purchasing activities were bundled in a central purchasing organization, the production network was improved, and greater flexibility was created at sites. The aim is to enable a transition to best-in-class procurement by 2026, further optimize the production network and reduce delivery times to customers.

“Global Operations is undergoing a comprehensive and long-term transformation process,” explains Johannes Giloth, COO GEA: “In addition to cost reductions, this also involves creating structures for further growth. In this way, Global Operations will continue to have a significant positive impact on profitability in the future.” Between 2022 and 2026, further optimizations in purchasing (EUR 90 million) and production (EUR 60 million) are expected to have a total net impact on EBITDA of EUR 150 million.

GEA examines possible acquisitions
Strong cash generation and a solid balance sheet will enable external growth. GEA will therefore examine value-enhancing acquisitions to strengthen its portfolio.

Outlook for business development in 2021 and 2022 confirmed
GEA confirms the guidance for fiscal year 2021 that was raised in July 2021. Organic growth of 5.0 to 7.0 percent is expected for revenue. EBITDA before restructuring expenses at constant exchange rates is anticipated to be in a range between EUR 600 million and EUR 630 million. The outlook for ROCE at constant exchange rates is likely to be in the range between 23 to 26 percent.

At the Capital Markets Day in September 2019, GEA communicated its targets up to 2022. In March 2021, when the annual figures for 2020 were presented, GEA adjusted its medium-term financial targets for 2022 upwards. GEA has confirmed these again. Group revenue is expected to grow by an average of 2.0 to 3.0 percent annually from 2019 until 2022, the EBITDA margin before restructuring expenses is to increase to a target corridor of 12.5 to 13.5 percent (Capital Markets Day 2019: 11.5 to 13.5 percent) and the ratio of net working capital to revenue is to be reduced to the range between 8.0 and 10.0 percent (Capital Markets Day 2019: 12.0 to 14.0 percent).

About GEA

GEA is one of the world’s largest systems suppliers to the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. The internationally active industrial technology group focuses on machines and plants as well as sophisticated process technology, components and comprehensive services. With more than 18,000 employees, the Group generated sales of more than EUR 4.6 billion in fiscal year 2020. A key focus is on making customers’ production processes ever more sustainable and efficient. GEA’s plants, processes and components help to significantly reduce CO2 emissions, the use of plastics and food waste in production worldwide. In line with its corporate mission statement “engineering for a better world”, GEA is thus making a decisive contribution to a sustainable future.

GEA is listed in the German MDAX and the STOXX(R) Europe 600 Index and is also one of the companies that make up the sustainability indices DAX 50 ESG and MSCI Global Sustainability.

GEA is also one of the companies that make up the DAX 50 ESG and MSCI Global Sustainability indices.

Here you can register for the virtual press conference at 10 am CET (9am GMT) on September 29: https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/yuzhrxej

For more information, visit gea.com.

If you do not wish to receive further communications from GEA, please email pr@gea.com.

#GEA

GBG wins Best AI/Machine Learning Innovation of the Year award

Judges praise GBG’s technology for reducing false positives and improving fraud detection

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 29 September 2021 – GBG (AIM:GBG), the global expert in digital identity, helping businesses prevent fraud and meet complex compliance requirements, has today announced it has won the award for Best AI or Machine Learning Innovation of the Year from Asia Risk Awards 2021.

 

The biggest challenge faced by financial institutions today is not the increasing volume of financial crime, but in the creativity and sophistication in which fraud attacks are executed. In managing uncharted financial crimes, financial institutions (FIs) are seeing higher false positive rates, higher fraud alerts, and more missed frauds, which are detrimental to achieving target business growth when customers are unable to onboard and transact with success.

 

Southeast Asia’s first fraud bureau, CTOS IDguard, which is powered by GBG’s fraud and financial crime platform, is currently deploying GBG Machine Learning and is seeing an uplift in fraud detection of up to 30% for credit card applications. Another Tier 1 global bank has also tested its machine learning technology to see a 22% reduction in false positives for credit card applications. The machine learning technology at GBG has specifically helped its customer base in addressing a range of financial crimes including account takeover, identity theft, loan never-payment, and money laundering.

 

GBG developed its machine learning capabilities in response to the increasing innovativeness and complexity in which fraud attacks are executed. With Financial Crime 4.0 escalating, a rule-based system is insufficient to detect and keep up with digital and emerging fraud typologies. GBG’s machine learning utilises both supervised and unsupervised algorithms; these algorithms are built into their core financial crime platform and can be easily and quickly configured, trained and deployed via a low code/no code user interface. In addition, it also seamlessly accepts the import of custom models created in different algorithms via a Python notebook-like interface.

 

“Winning Asia Risk 2021 award for the Best AI or Machine Learning Innovation of the Year is testament to GBG’s success to automate, scale and unlock the value of deriving intelligence from a range of historical, new and additional data in real-time. The goal of machine learning is to uncover implicit inconsistencies in behavior that are not an act of human error, analyse and flag out anomalies to detect and prevent new possible fraud scenarios as quickly as possible. It’s a watershed moment for our whole team across the globe,” says Dev Dhiman, APAC Managing Director of GBG.

 

“Machine learning helps financial institutions enhance two fundamental processes – customer experience management and financial crime prevention. Reducing false positive rates is not just about streamlining internal processes and costs, but in enabling legitimate customers to onboard and continuously transact with success. GBG’s machine learning which underpins its core financial crime technology can help financial institutions maintain stronger customer lifetime value while prioritising financial crime management,” concludes Dhiman

 

A recent survey conducted by GBG with 118 financial institutions across Southeast Asia found machine learning is quickly becoming a mainstream solution for fraud detection and prevention. In the survey, machine learning is the number one fraud prevention solution respondents are exploring this year, with more than one-third selecting this option above others.

 

According to Adam Emslie, Head of Analytics at GBG, the most important factor about machine learning models is not that they’re workable, but that they meet the efficiency and accuracy standards as demanded by customers and industry.

 

“Stemming from a single end to end solution, GBG’s Digital Risk Management and Intelligence platform passes data from origination and transactions directly into the machine learning models bypassing the need for data extraction, resulting in faster model training and deployment than what the industry typically offers. In addition, fraud and compliance objectives can be achieved through multiple workflows with the GBG Intelligence Center. Fraud analysts are enabled to prioritise and enhance accuracy in detection and prevention of larger fraud challenges,” says Emslie.

 

The Asia Risk Technology Awards are the longest-running and most prestigious awards for firms and individuals involved in the Asia’s derivatives markets and in risk management. The awards recognise vendors that are serving financial services firms in meaningful and innovative ways. The team at Asia Risk spoke about why it chose GBG for this to win the prestigious best in class for AI or Machine Learning Innovation of the Year.

 

“With instances of financial crime increasing around the world, firms are struggling to cope with the rising volume of investigations that they have to conduct and ensuring that their fraud detection tools are accurate and efficient. The judges were most impressed with the performance of GBG’s artificial intelligence and machine learning to help reduce false positives and improve fraud detection of emerging typologies,” says Blake Evans-Pritchard, bureau chief for Asia Risk.

 

The Asia Risk Awards 2021 were announced online throughout September 27-30, 2021.

The win for GBG is the latest in a string of industry-recognised achievements for the company:

For more information on GBG’s expansion of machine learning across GBG’s end to end financial crime platform to improve fraud detection accuracy, click here.

About GBG

GBG (AIM: GBG) offers a range of solutions that help organisations quickly validate and verify the identity and location of their customers. Our market-leading technology, data and expertise help our customers improve digital access, deliver a seamless experience and establish trust so that they can transact quickly, safely and securely with their customers online. Headquartered in the UK and with over 1,000 team members across 16 countries, we work with 20,000 customers in over 70 countries. Some of the world’s best-known businesses rely on GBG to provide digital services and keep the economy moving, from US e-commerce giants to Asia’s biggest banks and European household brands. To find out more about how we help our clients establish trust with their customers, visit www.gbgplc.com/apac, follow us on Twitter @gbgplc or LinkedIn.

#GBG

Factory Outbreaks Continue in Laos, New Death Confirmed

Lockdown in Laos Covid-19
Lockdown in Vientiane Capital (Photo: Kaikeo)

Laos has recorded more cases of community spread of Covid-19 across several provinces today, with a new death confirmed.

Singapore Aesthetic Clinic Launched New Sylfirm X Anti-Aging Treatment

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 29 September 2021 – Korean aesthetic clinic, Dream Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery Singapore, is proud to announce the arrival of Sylfirm X, a Dual Wave Radio Frequency (RF) Micro-Needle System devised in Silicon Valley, USA.

Using a combination of 4 Pulsed and 4 Continuous Wave modes with 12 energy levels, there are 96 possible treatment settings to cater to a myriad of skin concerns. Sylfirm X is clinically and technologically proven to help with melasma, active acne, acne scars, enlarged pores, skin brightening, skin lifting, wrinkles, stretch marks, facial veins, and rosacea.  This versatile treatment is also suitable for all skin tones and types.

“The versatility of Sylfirm X allows a greater level of customization for each treatment. In each session, multiple settings can be adjusted to cater to specific skin conditions. The treatment helps patients to realise holistic skin improvements within a shorter time. “, says Dr. Vincent Yeow, Medical Director of Dream Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery.

Unlike traditional RF treatments, the ultrafine gold micro-needles deliver fractionated RF to target skin tissues across three dermal layers. It is clinically proven to be effective for stubborn skin conditions such as melasma, which are traditionally treated only with lasers. Studies have also shown Sylfirm X treatments to improve stubborn melasma conditions by 50% or more.

Another feature of Sylfirm X is its precision targeting, which ensures that the intended micro damages are restricted to the treatment sites only, reducing unnecessary trauma to the surrounding skin. This greatly reduces pain during treatment, enabling patients to receive the full benefit of the treatment without compromising on treatment settings for result efficacy.

Medical Doctor, Dr. Wong C.H says, “In fact, patients’ feedback is that there is no pain during treatment, and they love the fact that their treatments involve no or minimal down-time. For what this device does and what it replaces, we hope to deliver better rejuvenation results to all our patients who are seeking to improve the quality of their skin.”

Further information on Sylfirm X Treatment, visit:  https://dreamplasticsurgery.com/aesthetics/sylfirmx/

Dream Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery Overview

Founded in 1999 by Dr Yang Soo-Park and helmed by managing partner Associate Professor Vincent Yeow, Dream Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery Singapore opened its flagship clinic in 2014 as a part of expanding the Korean hallmark of beauty across Asia.

Bearing a true Korean origin, Dream Singapore’s bespoke approach in aesthetics and plastic surgery treatment are devised in Korea, providing an end-to-end Korean beauty experience.

Dream Aesthetics & Plastic Surgery Singapore works in synergy with Dream Medical Group Korea to bring professional care with a touch of flair in the aesthetics and plastic surgery field. They continually exchange technical knowledge, new innovations and changing trends to bring in effective treatment solutions for refining one’s natural beauty.

#DreamAesthetics&PlasticSurgery

Thai Durian Growers Expect Fruitful Outcome from Laos-China Railway

Chinese companies hope to start durian plantations in Laos

Durian growers in Thailand are eagerly awaiting the opening of the Laos-China Railway, which they believe will help them access the lucrative Chinese market.

Laos Constructs Railway Vocational Technical College

Laos constructs railway vocational college
Laos constructs railway vocational college (Photo: Vientiane Times).

Construction of a Railway Vocational Technical College has begun in Vientiane Capital that will produce graduates to work in the railway sector.

BMI Business Intelligence: Audience Analytics Launches TEAM SaaS

TEAM “SaaS” redefines employee perspective in real-time

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach – 29 September 2021 – BMI Business Intelligence, a subsidiary of Audience Analytics Limited official launches its proprietary Total Engagement Assessment Model (“TEAM”) as a Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”).

 

TEAM provides business leaders and HR professionals with deep insight into their employee engagement level to better understand their employees’ perspective in real-time. The software licensing model is available on annual flat fee subscription plans.

 

“TEAM is a proven assessment product that is being used by thousands of businesses each year, including some of the world’s largest corporations. Today, we are taking the product a step further by making it available on a self-serve basis to corporate clients as well as small and medium enterprises”, says William Ng, managing director of BMI Business Intelligence.

 

TEAM is a robust, proven, and scalable assessment tool to help businesses better understand their workforce. Developed in partnership with leading thought leaders and industry practitioners; TEAM has now been deployed to over 1.5 million employees across 20,000+ organizations, serving as a valuable assessment tool, feedback loop and validation for employee experience and engagement.

 

The interactive TEAM dashboard provides 360-degree insights on employee engagement in real-time, which allows management to take immediate steps to improve engagement level, reduce attrition and supercharge productivity.

 

The TEAM model and assessment product took 3 years to develop, and has been tested extensively in 13 markets across Asia. On top of individualized scores and real-time feedback, businesses will receive comparative scores against their market and their industry, a first in HR analytics. 

 

Ng added, “our existing TEAM users agree that TEAM has been a valuable assessment tool in gathering employees’ feedback and as a validation of their employee experience and engagement efforts. More importantly, with over 1.5 million assessments done, we have deep insight into what makes or breaks employee engagement, especially in this region – making TEAM an essential service for businesses looking at enhancing their staff productivity and engagement level”.

 

The Ultimate Employee Engagement Barometer Powered by AI

 

TEAM establishes engagement levels in the organization and identifies areas of improvement for employee well-being, engagement and productivity. Some of the features of TEAM include:

 

1.    Real-time actionable insights: TEAM’s AI-powered employee engagement assessment provides users with engagement insights in real-time, so they could take action quickly to address flagged problems.

 

2.    Simple, intuitive dashboard: View employee engagement scores in a simple, intuitive dashboard that can be screenshot and used in internal reports. See the data changes real-time as each assessment is completed.

 

3.    Market specific landscape: TEAM algorithm offers industry-specific benchmark from over 20,000 organizations across a wide-spectrum of industries. With the Pro Version, get a deeper level of insight through tailored reports by comparing the results against industry and market (*availability varies by industry / market).

 

4.    Employee feedback analysis: TEAM’s AI and machine learning algorithm help discover hidden insights from open-ended employee feedback. Viewed as a heatmap, key discussion topics and feedbacks at-a-glance.

 

5.    Reduce unwanted attrition: TEAM’s AI-powered employee engagement assessment makes employee retention easier by identifying unhappy employees in real-time. Get to know their challenges and concerns instantly and take corrective action to retain them.

 

6.    Anywhere, anytime: Traditional employee engagement surveys are not only costly, but are often limited as an annual exercise. With TEAM, pay one flat fee for round-the-year assessment, and obtain immediate feedback as and when you need them. Your employee’s engagement level changes year-round, so why should your assessment be once-a-year?

 

To subscribe to TEAM, visit https://teamhr.org/

 

About BMI Business Intelligence

BMI Business Intelligence is a subsidiary of Audience Analytics Limited, a regional leader in enabling growth companies through data-driven brands. Our properties include media brands such as SME Magazine, HR Asia, Capital Asia, Energy Asia, Logistics Asia, TruthTV and CXP Asia, business impact assessment brands such as SME100, HR Asia Best Companies to Work for in Asia, Golden Bull Awards and CXP Asia Best Customer Experience Awards, trade and consumer exhibitions, and AI-driven growth analytics.

#BMIBusinessIntelligence

Velocity Global launches next-gen technology to power its global work platform

LAS VEGAS, US – News Direct – 28 September 2021 –

  • Platform eliminates friction to manage any talent anywhere, anytime in a single click
  • Proprietary technology delivers a seamless cloud experience for clients and talent

Velocity Global scales its leading global work platform with the launch of its next-generation technology. Built on proprietary code and best-in-breed cloud solutions, the latest version streamlines the client and talent experience to deliver real-time insights to compliantly manage distributed teams.

Velocity Global's proprietary, cloud-based technology

Velocity Global unveiled the technology experience at the HR Technology Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas.

“Our global work platform delivers compliance, accuracy, flexibility, and customization, which inspired our next-generation technology for a seamless client and talent experience,” said Dave Martelon, Velocity Global chief technology officer.

Velocity Global’s next-generation technology introduces several features including:

Streamlined Supported Employee Onboarding: New team members are guided through a seamless step-by-step experience customized to their country of employment.

Interactive Global Dashboard: Clients can view all of their supported employees and their employment status across the globe at a glance, and drill down into details at the country level.

Simple Time Off Management: Clients view and approve time off requests for all supported employees in one place.

Flexible Payroll Requests: Clients generate, view, and manage recurring and one-time payment requests based on their custom payroll schedule with ease.

Consolidated Invoicing and Payments: The platform generates consolidated invoices so clients can pay their talent with a single click of a button.

3rd Party Integrations: The platform is built to reduce the overhead of manual data entry through integrations with clients’ internal systems.

“Our team makes the complex simple,” said Martelon. “We built a proprietary infrastructure that connects with leading talent management systems and removes friction for clients and HR departments. The underlying infrastructure is flexible and enables the future of work.”

Velocity Global’s work platform combines the company’s proprietary cloud-based workforce management technology, personalized expertise, and unmatched global scale to build globally distributed teams. More than 1,000 clients rely on Velocity Global’s platform without the need to set up their own legal entities in other countries or other states.

Velocity Global is exhibiting at HR Technology Conference and Exposition at booth #5514.

About Velocity Global

Velocity Global accelerates the future of work beyond borders. Its global work platform simplifies the employer and employee experience to employ any talent anywhere with just a click through its proprietary cloud-based workforce management technology, backed by personalized expertise and unmatched global scale. As the largest global Employer of Record (also known as International PEO) in 185 countries and all 50 United States, more than 1,000 brands rely on Velocity Global to build global teams without the cost or complexity of setting up foreign legal entities or state registrations. The company offers additional services including Independent Contractor Compliance to assess a workforce, and Agent of Record (AoR) to streamline payments to contractors. Velocity Global was named a “Leader” in Global Employer of Record services by prominent analyst firm NelsonHall. Founded in 2014, the company has hundreds of employees across six continents. For more information visit velocityglobal.com.

#VelocityGlobal