Gauselmann Group 7 per cent up in 2019

The now dominant international business sector for Germany’s Gauselmann Group, has again proved a valuable investment for the company, in 2019 playing its part in increasing revenue by almost 7 per cent, the group has revealed.

Non-German sales overtook the domestic market for Gauselmann a couple of years ago and has again proved to be the larger share of the €3.42bn in sales the group achieved.

In a statement this week, Gauselmann Group reported that prior to the lockdown in Germany it was “clearly on the road to success.” The family-run company closed the 2019 financial year with the sharp increase in sales despite difficult economic and political conditions.

The €3.42bn in sales comprised €2.41bn “without internal sales”. Fully consolidated sales were €2.58bn.

CEO Paul Gauselmann said: “It was a great result, primarily due to the enthusiasm and motivation of the employees.” He said that the positive development before the pandemic was accompanied by an increase in the number of employees by 451 to 13,846.

More than 60 per cent of sales came from the international market. Gauselmann said that this “reduced our dependence on our core market of Germany, where the legal framework has unfortunately been deteriorating for years.” Constant new restrictions ensured that there was massive migration of the gaming guests to unlimited or even mostly illegal offers. “This was, for example on the internet or in back rooms where youth and player protection no longer applies. This means that we are often no longer able to fulfil the legally formulated mandate to guide the population’s natural instinct to play in an orderly manner.”

The group’s capital base grew before the pandemic by 11 per cent, or €108m to €1.1bn or an equity ratio of 66 per cent. “Despite the Europe-wide closure of our 800 gaming venues, the many hundreds of sports betting shops and the ten German casino locations, plus the casinos on cruise ships, we were able to focus on maintaining the almost 14,000 jobs in the company.”