"Growth at ZF next year will exceed the expected growth in our industry," CEO Hans-Georg Haerter said, adding that his target for 2010 was to avoid another loss.
"Although we have had to absorb significant losses in the hundreds of millions of euros ... we continue to have no liquidity problems, and on top of that we have the prospect of an increasing market share and for the final quarter of 2009 a positive operating profit once again," he added.
Haerter told the press that the ZF company lost somewhere between 300 and 400 million Euros. The figure depends on the outcome of impairment tests.
ZF, currently known for their eight-speed automatic gearbox featured on BMW cars, says its revenues will drop by 25 percent to 9.3 billion euros this year. In 2008 ZF registered 12.5 billion in revenues and was ranked 9th overall in the top 100 global suppliers, says autonews.com. For the future, ZF is trying to diversify and change its image of transmissions developer and manufacturer. "We are utilizing our electronics expertise and entering the market for telemetry services," Haerter said.
The company was founded in 1915 by Count Ferdinand Zeppelin and was meant to supply gearwheels for dirigibles. At this moment, the Zeppelin Foundation owns 94 percent of ZF.
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