Company boss Endress on euro fears and career end

No, but it is like that. You have to see, I have been officially with the company for over 34 years, and of that nearly 20 years as the boss. Naturally, I have gone through all sorts of things, ups and downs. I have risked my career several times for the good cause, and it always paid off, for me in the end too, but actually for the company. We have moved incredibly well. I always say, this is not arrogant, I know no better company in our industry when it comes to the bottom line.

It is always difficult in times like these, and also in recent years, to make any forecasts at all. When I look at our own business performance, I have to say that it always starts a bit slowly, and so on, a bit overestimated, but we are exactly on target, just under one percent below seven percent in the plus. I am of the opinion that we can do even better. Yes, it will be a good year, celebrated nonetheless, for all who make an effort.

My wife says the wrong question, because satisfied, after all, designers must be critical, critical dissatisfaction. Yes, but you are right, it was a good year. The last year was also very, very difficult, various markets were incredibly in the plus, and the previous year everything was the other way around. But if you look at the average, it was a cold but interesting year. Last year was again our best year.

Yes, so one must say, the American army, actually America, starting from Canada, USA, and also Mexico, Brazil, they moved very well. There one can say that America, big and powerful, was the second largest market for us, really good. I should say, for the third year in a row, this so-called re-industrialization, i.e., back from Mexico and cheaper countries to the USA, helped, and that was driven by gas, by the gas business, by fracking, not that a bit, but yes, that certainly helped, it fueled it. Markets that were not so good earlier but very good, we had China, sometimes many good things came together, but also the economy helped. That we were not so good there, and today, if you will, it has evened out. The USA at the moment is struggling, we are getting it back, it is the same, and China is developing excellently. And in the past year, we created new jobs in the region.

Yes, overall we created about 600 additional jobs. That is certainly 250, I cannot say exactly, but usually about half we create here in the region. The reason I hesitated was that at the end of last year we made a smaller acquisition that added 90 people, but they are Americans, so I have a bit of a different count. Usually it is about half, 52 were already in the area.

Yes, as long as no black swan appears, like Nicholas Taleb described, meaning events that are unpredictable and move the world in a positive or negative way. As long as such black swans do not appear, for example Cyprus could have been such a thing, but we had announced for so long what they were doing, it was no surprise, and those who knew beforehand brought their sheep to dry, and the others, they won't let that happen twice. No, so as long as there are no such surprises that cause panic, I am confident. The debt crisis is a topic that one has to manage. One can do it, the numbers are okay. Let's get on a reasonable path and manage the household with what is entrusted to us, or believe we can just continue and turn the screws again and then raise taxes again. That discussion about the Greens in Germany, and then one complains about tax evasion, and one has to think whether that might be related. And then we should think a bit and put our own things in order. I am therefore very confident about that. The weather, yes.