An outlook that inspires hope

Thomas has therefore been going through a time of change for some years now, with its new organizational structure in place since October 2020. CEO Markus Krauss says: “This process is absolutely essential, because it safeguards the future. It’s making us more agile and more powerful, as it’s concentrating available resources exactly where they’re needed. Decision-making channels are getting shorter, and each one of us is focusing on our core duties. This is freeing up space to develop expertise for new markets, such as electrical engineering.”

The good thing about this change is that it will have delivered lasting benefits in just a few years. With this in mind, the Management Board recently shared its prospects for 2025 with staff. Here are the main points:

Understanding customers.

In 2025, the whole Thomas team shares the same international positioning and focus and devotes even more time to each individual customer. Since we understand our customers’ systems better than ever, we are a unique technology partner that supplies them with components, products, and systems – on time, on competitive terms, and in the highest quality.

Thinking in systems.

Coupled with the new corporate structure, a harmoniously integrated process landscape will ensure even faster speeds and better quality across the whole company. Amongst other things, this will benefit system development and, in particular, our customers: it will enable us to create solutions more dynamically and more proactively and leverage the potential offered by digitalization – for innovative solutions that integrate sensor, electronic, and mechanical systems and that wow our customers with their benefits.

Embracing community.

Cooperation will be even more relevant in 2025 than it is today. The “we” element will be more important than ever. Working together in networks will stand as an example for how creativity, the hive mind, and internal and external expertise can be harnessed in order to develop innovations in collaboration with customers. This will be built on the unshakeable foundation provided by the qualities of “Honesty. Courage. Support.” – bold transformation, enduring values.

Rooted in the here and now

A glance at the latest developments in the newly formed Customer Units shows that these prospects for 2025 are underpinned by realistic assumptions and expectations.

The example of Off Highway Solutions: in 2025, the division’s team will generate much of its business through electromechanical and electrohydraulic drives, i.e. products that did not use to form part of the core business of mechanical engineering. Sales in the Off Highway Solutions division will increase considerably in future, with a significant proportion being generated in China, where Thomas is building its own production facility. Thomas will also see growth in its main markets over the next few years, with plans to enter the South Korean, Japanese and South American markets.

All the signs are likewise pointing towards a successful future in the Mobility Solutions division. Thomas’s transmission solenoids are already being used extremely successfully in automatic transmissions – as they will be in a wide range of hybrid vehicles in the future too. Thomas is also positioning itself as a technology partner for fuel cells and hydrogen power for commercial vehicles and is getting motor-pump units for chassis control in autonomous all-electric vehicles and thermal management systems for electric drives ready for series production.