On January 5, 2015, following the antitrust authorities’ approval, the Bosch Group completed its acquisition of Siemens’s 50 percent share in BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH. The former 50:50 Bosch-Siemens joint venture can therefore now be run as a wholly owned Bosch subsidiary. The household-appliance manufacturer with its roughly 50,000 associates generated sales of some 10.5 billion euros in 2013. Following listing in the commercial register, the company will be known as BSH Hausgeräte GmbH.
The complete takeover of BSH will play a role in expanding Bosch’s activities in the area of connected buildings and appliances. As part of smart home concepts, household appliances are to become even easier to use and more energy-efficient in the future – appliances will become even more user-friendly. For example, BSH has developed “Home Connect,” an app that allows users to control connected appliances from their smartphone or tablet PC using a wifi connection. BSH has already premiered its first appliances – ovens and dishwashers – featuring Home Connect, and more are to follow.
“Our strategic objective is to create solutions for a connected world,” says Dr. Karsten Ottenberg, who will continue to be at the helm of BSH in the future. The company will be run as a largely independent operation within the Bosch Group. “In the shape of Bosch, we shall continue to have a values-focused owner that fully supports our strategy,” Ottenberg says. As one of the world’s leading household-appliance companies, it remains BSH’s objective to further expand its position in the global market and to gain market share, especially outside Europe. BSH intends to double its sales by 2025. To achieve this, investment in research and development, as well as in the BSH brands, is to be stepped up, according to Ottenberg.
In acquiring all shares in BSH, Bosch is expanding its non-automotive business. With its consumer goods business now fully consolidated, roughly one quarter of Bosch sales will come from this business sector. The share of total non-automotive Bosch sales will then be more than 40 percent. In this way, Bosch will come a significant step closer to its target of generating roughly half its sales from non-automotive business.
