Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 57
business with customers in certain activities, the sales com-
missions increased only slightly in a year-to-year compa-
rison despite the dynamic sales development, and personnel
expenses rose disproportionately to the sales development.
On the other hand, freight charges directly dependent on
sales increased due to the higher sales volume, and adver-
tising costs were also up on 2016.
Of all functional cost areas, research and develop-
ment expenses showed the strongest growth in 2017. On
account of the continuous expansion of development
activities in nearly all of our divisions, as well as the buildup
of activities to further develop the metallography tech-
nology we acquired, the ratio of research and development
Multi-period overview of the earnings situation
Sales (in € million )
costs to sales rose slightly from 6.2 % to 6.3 %. This trend
was additionally driven by initiatives in application-oriented
research and intensified activities in the development of
new technologies that can be used to market innovative
products.
In 2017, administrative expenses recorded the lowest
increase of all functional cost areas, and the ratio of admin-
istrative expenses to sales sank further. This positive devel-
opment was primarily due to stable personnel expenses, by
far the most important cost position within administrative
expenses.
The balance of other operating income and expenses
improved considerably. This development is mainly due to
2013 1,765
2014 1,952
2015 2,059
2016 2,075
2017 2,247
EBITDA (in € million )
2013 336
2014 397
2015 391
2016 453
2017 470