58 Business Development
Depreciation and amortization must be considered separately;
due to the absence of non-recurring effects from the impairment
of goodwill, the overall figure was well below that
of the previous year. Adjusted for this effect, depreciation
and amortization increased by 3 % in a year-to-year comparison.
Personnel expenses were impacted by the increase
in production capacity and the associated increase in the
number of positions, in addition to annual pay rises. Accordingly,
personnel expenses rose above the previous year’s figures,
which were influenced by the pandemic. The ratio of
total personnel costs to sales decreased to 20.9 % (previous
year: 23.4 %) due to the sharp increase in sales. The extraordinary
volume growth, high capacity utilization, and higher
price levels led to an increase in all operating functional
cost areas, particularly in the area of semi-variable production
and selling expenses. In addition, there was a significant
increase in IT security costs, with additional sums spent on
protective and defensive measures against cybercrime in
the wake of the increasing threat. All functional areas were
affected.
Within production costs, personnel costs in particular
were higher than in the previous year due to high capacity
utilization. However, increased energy costs, higher maintenance
costs, and higher expenses for temporary employees
also led to a year-over-year rise.
In terms of selling expenses, the main drivers were freight
costs, which accounted for more than half of the cost increase.
In second place, the increase in personnel costs, mainly
due to the growth in business activities, was also responsi-
ble for the increase.
Research and development expenses also rose. In this
area, too, the reason for the increase was personnel expensSales
Multi-period overview of the earnings situation
(in € million )
2017 2,247
2018 2,307
2019 2,249
2020 2,178
2021 2,667
EBITDA (in € million )
2017 470
2018 431
2019 416
2020 426
2021 482