NAFTA

Business within the NAFTA Region



Business within the NAFTA Region

Robert Bosch GmbH is a German diversified technology-based corporation which was started in 1886 by Robert Bosch in Stuttgart.

Robert Bosch GmbH is the world's largest supplier of automobile components, and has business relationships with virtually every automobile company in the world. The headquarters of Bosch is in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart. Franz Fehrenbach became chairman on 1 July 2003. The Bosch Group comprises more than 275 subsidiary companies.

Statistics

Operating in the areas of automotive and industrial technology, consumer goods, and building technology, the Bosch Group reported sales of €43.7 billion[2] in fiscal 2006, an increase of 5.4% over the previous fiscal.

In 2005, worldwide sales of the Bosch Group came to €41.5 billion (reported as US$49,102,300,000), with about US$8 billion in US sales. In the auto-component supply market, the top competitors of Robert Bosch GmbH are: Delphi Corporation, Visteon, DENSO Corporation, and, Continental AG.

In 2004, Robert Bosch GmbH was 17th on the list of Top 20 Patent Winners in the United States, with 907 new patents. This was an improvement from 20th (758 patents) in 2003, and 23rd (683 patents) in 2002.

Structure

Robert Bosch GmbH, including its wholly owned subsidiaries such as Robert Bosch LLC in North America, is unusual in that it is an extremely large, privately owned corporation that is almost entirely (92%) owned by a charitable foundation. Thus, while most of the profits are ploughed back into the corporation to build for the future and sustain growth, nearly all of the profits distributed to shareholders are devoted to humanitarian causes.

As shown in the diagram (above), the Robert Bosch Stiftung (Robert Bosch Foundation) holds 92% of the shares (Beteiligung) of Robert Bosch GmbH, but no voting rights (Stimmrecht). The Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG (Robert Bosch Industrial Trust KG), with old members of the company management, agents of the Bosch family, and other eminent people from the industry (such as Jürgen Hambrecht, CEO of BASF), have 93% of the votes (Stimmen), but no shares (0.01%). The remaining 8% of shares and 7%[1] of voting-rights are held by the descendants of the company founder Robert Bosch (Familie Bosch).

For example, in 2004, the net profit was US$2.1 billion, but only US$78 million was distributed as dividends to shareholders. Of that figure, US$72 million was distributed to the charitable foundation, and the other US$6 million to Bosch family stockholders. The remaining 96% of the profits were pumped back into the company. In its core automotive technology business, Bosch invests 9% of its revenue on research and development, nearly double the industry average of 4.7%.

Core businesses

Automotive technology

About 60% of Bosch's worldwide annual sales are produced in automotive technology. Bosch invented the first practical magneto, an early ignition electrical source, which provided the spark to ignite the fuel in most of the earliest internal combustion engines. Bosch's corporate logo to this date depicts the armature from a magneto. Bosch also invented the Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), and as time passed, Bosch became a leader in such specialised fields as traction ...