2023 was a year of extremes for VDL Groep, which also celebrated its 70th anniversary that year. The company had to bid farewell to founder Wim van der Leegte, saw the number of orders and employees at NedCar fall sharply, and the buses division took a hit. These facts were offset by record turnover and the realization of the ambitious investment program to facilitate customers in VDL’s growth markets.
Because of incidental costs at the Auto Assembly division and operational headwinds at the Buses division, the result of the industrial family business headquartered in Eindhoven fell. Combined annual sales reached 6.354 billion euros in 2023, up 10 percent from annual sales in 2022 (5.752 billion euros). Net income fell, mainly due to one-time charges in 2023, from 298 million euros to 82 million euros in 2023. Normalized earnings, excluding exceptional gains and losses, fell by 29 million euros to 147 million euros. The number of employees decreased by 272 colleagues to 14,973 employees (down 1.8 percent) since the beginning of 2024.
2023 was characterized by “historically high sales,” said chief executive officer Willem van der Leegte. “The situation at the Auto Assembly and Buses divisions weighs heavily on our results due to the costs of the social plan at VDL Nedcar and challenges at Buses. As a result, we are pulling out all the stops to maintain the investments our customers require in other activities. The organic turnover growth of 2023 confirms that our substantial and years-long investments in innovation are having an effect.” VDL sees itself “well positioned” in the five growth markets of High-tech, Mobility, Energy, Infratech, and food tech.
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