Group Management Report Products Safety and Health Environment Human Resources Social Commitment Consolidated Financial Statements 67
Thanks to the close cooperation between the central departments
Corporate Innovation and Corporate Venturing,
ALTANA can continuously examine technology and market
potential and enter new attractive markets by means of targeted
investments in transformative technology companies.
In this context, ALTANA further intensified its investment
in the Israeli industrial digital printing company Velox Ltd. in
the 2019 fiscal year.
The basis for our innovative strength is an open and
dynamic corporate culture that gives the 1,174 employees in
our research and development centers around the world
the freedom to act creatively and entrepreneurially. The equipment
in our development centers enables our employees
to implement their ideas in marketable solutions. In the year
under review, expenses for research and development
amounted to € 165.6 million, a significantly higher amount
than in the previous year (€ 154.1 million). The further increase
in research and development expenses to 7.4 % of
sales (previous year: 6.7 %) is linked to the achievement
of important milestones and the translation of individual customer
requirements into future, innovative products.
Employees
At the end of 2019, the companies of the ALTANA Group
employed 6,476 people worldwide (previous year: 6,428). The
number remained very stable over the course of the year,
with an increase of 48 people or 1 %. The slight rise of 1 %
is primarily due to an acquisition in the BYK division (+ 27
employees).
In the BYK division, the workforce rose slightly by 23
to 2,347 (previous year: 2,324). The increase is due to the
opposite effect. On the one hand, 38 employees were
transferred to a Group holding company, where cross-divisional
services have been increasingly bundled since 2018.
This decline was offset by the newly acquired business activities
of Paul N. Gardner in the USA (+ 27 employees), which
were integrated into BYK’s testing and measuring instrument
business in mid-2019. The number of employees also increased
in the course of the year as a result of the strategic
expansion of activities in the additive business in Shang-
hai and the testing and measuring instruments business in
Germany.
By contrast, the staff numbers in the ECKART division
decreased by 17 to 1,701 in the course of 2019 (previous
Employees in research and development
BYK 502
ECKART 270
ELANTAS 165
ACTEGA 226
Holding 11
Total 1,174
Employees by division
1
5
2
3
26.3 %
16.6 %
36.3 %
3.1 %
4 17.7 %
Dec. 31,
2018
Dec. 31,
2019
Δ %
1 BYK 2,324 2,347 1
2 ECKART 1,718 1,701 - 1
3 ELANTAS 1,087 1,078 - 1
4 ACTEGA 1,151 1,148 0
5 Holding 148 202 36
Total 6,428 6,476 1