materials & tools 18 no.
materials & tools 18 no. 2, May 2025
news & facts STUDER looks back on a solid 2024 financial year The Swiss manufacturer of precision cylindrical grinding machines improved its market position worldwide, driving forward technological innovations and further increasing operational efficiency. “Thanks to the high diversification of our portfolio, we can look back on a solid financial year 2024 with growth in several markets and industries”, said Jens Bleher, who has been CEO of STUDER since 2018 and joined the management of the UNITED GRINDING Group as COO on April 1, 2025. Bleher is handing over the CEO position to long-standing CSO Sandro Bottazzo. The challenging economic and geopolitical environment required particularly intensive efforts, as Bleher emphasizes. “In addition to quality, the focus of activities at STUDER is therefore on increasing productivity, intensive cost management and the introduction of new, innovative technologies. STUDER remains a reliable partner for our customers and sees itself in an excellent position to face global competition”, says Bleher. STUDER maintained its market share worldwide and even expanded it in individual countries and regions, explained Sandro Bottazzo, new CEO and chairman of the management board since March 1, 2025. He added: “We are continuing to expand our leading position in the universal cylindrical grinding machine market step by step.” The development of new customers was very positive, with a year-onyear increase to around 43 %. Strong segments were the Asian automotive and supplier industry, tool and die, and the machine tool industry. STUDER continued to expand its presence in the aerospace sector and strengthen its market position, similar to the previous year. Overall, order intake was only slightly below last year’s figures, as anticipated. Another record turnover in customer care The quality manufacturer of cylindrical grinding machines recorded a very good development in incoming orders, particularly in North America. Asia, which remains the largest sales region, and the Latin, north and east european countries also posted strong results. By contrast, central Europe, and Germany in particular, fell short of expectations. The Customer Care division performed very well, again posting record sales in 2024. The consistent expansion of international and multilingual service coverage with customerfacing and decentralized service specialists proved to be a complete success, Bottazzo emphasized. The spare parts business, maintenance and machine overhauls and conversions achieved record sales, and the service business also remained at the previous year’s very high level of capacity utilization. An important pillar of STUDER’s success was again its broad portfolio. The CNC universal cylindrical grinding machine segment was particularly strong, with the S33 as the best-selling machine, followed by the S31 and the favoritCNC. Sales of the ultra-modern S41 in the premium Stephan Stoll (COO), Sandro Botazzo (new CEO) and Daniel Huber (CTO); left to right segment were also solid. The second strongest segment was machines for internal cylindrical grinding with a robust sales performance. By contrast, sales of production and conventional machines fell short of expectations. Enhanced spindle expertise Stephan Stoll, COO of STUDER, gave an overview of the operations division. Despite the generally tense market situation, the manufacturing and assembly resources were largely utilized with the STUDER machine business, the extensive intercompany activities within the UNITED GRINDING Group, and the development of future-oriented prototype systems. Several relevant optimization projects were successfully implemented, such as the strategically important expansion of internal spindle expertise. In addition to the commissioning of an automated, highly efficient spindle shaft production facility, all assembly processes were consolidated and enriched with state-of-the-art inspection and testing equipment. Highly specialized specialists and powerful assembly, data analysis and diagnostic tools allow STUDER, as a groupwide competence center to produce and further develop spindles to the highest standards. The internal electrical pre-assembly has also been completely renewed. “We are now able to produce everything from individual cable sets to fully wired, complex electrical control cabinets in a highly efficient, order-specific and justin-time manner”, said Stoll. In addition intensive planning for the comprehensive redesign and automation of the internal logistics infrastructure was completed last year. The implementation of this major STUDER project is already in full swing – commissioning is scheduled for December 2025. further information: www.studer.com no. 2, May 2025 19
