Equity story
Acceleration of sustainable, profitable growth enables significant value creation for our shareholders
Leading positions in attractive and growing markets
We are one of the world's largest system suppliers for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. As an internationally active industrial technology group, we focus on machinery and equipment as well as advanced process technology, components, and comprehensive services.
We generate around 80% of our sales in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. These markets are characterized by stable growth rates with comparatively small fluctuations. This is based on important global megatrends such as continuous population growth, the expansion of the middle class, the demand for alternative protein sources (new food), or the trend towards healthy, functional and individual nutrition.
Mission 30: Strategy to accelerate sustainable, profitable growth until 2030
„Mission 30“ details how GEA will continue to drive profitable growth and significantly expand the company’s share of sustainable solutions. AI-supported processes and new business models will play an increasingly important role in achieving this. Sustainable customer solutions encompass four key areas: the development of climate strategies for customers, production process decarbonization, “net-zero” process line solutions as well as process optimization through digital applications. GEA’s service business is another pillar of profitable growth. GEA also foresees future growth in the field of alternative proteins, which hold the promise of feeding a growing global population with fewer resources.
As a further component of Mission 30, a global transformation program will be rolled out to harmonize and more closely align the areas of production, purchasing and supply chain management, leading to major cost savings, while at the same time sharpening our competitive edge. Additionally, GEA aims to reduce the share of general administrative expenses to below 10 percent by 2030. This is to be achieved in particular through the global harmonization of ERP systems, by optimizing internal processes and structures as well as automating business processes.
Based on the assumption of increasing profitability combined with a stable net working capital to sales ratio in a range of 7 to 9 percent and disciplined capital expenditures of 2.5-3.0 percent of sales until 2030, we expect strong free cash flow generation totaling more than EUR 4 billion from 2024 to 2030.
We will allow our shareholders to participate in this success of substantial value enhancement with sustainable dividend increases, as we plan to distribute around 50 percent of the net profit in the future. In addition, strong cash generation and a solid balance sheet will enable external growth. GEA will therefore examine value-enhancing acquisitions to strengthen its portfolio.
About us
