Festo provides Basis for Growth
Financial Year 2025/2026
The Festo Group recorded solid financial results in 2025 despite a challenging business environment. The turnover declined slightly to €3.33 billion (-3.7% from last year).
Machinery manufacturers are facing challenging market conditions, hampered by trade barriers such as unpredictable U.S. tariff policies and geopolitical conflicts. Many customers remain hesitant to invest, the automotive sector and suppliers are feeling the impact of the crisis in particular.
In North and South America as well as Europe (excluding DACH), Festo achieved slight growth last year. The strongest growth came from the Indian market. In 2025, Festo opened a large, modern plant in India, thereby laying the groundwork for further growth in this emerging market.
The other Asian markets – China, Southeast Asia, Korea, and Japan – saw slight declines. The domestic market (DACH) also continued to stagnate. Within the industrial segments, growth momentum came from the food and packaging industries, the semiconductor sector, and the future-oriented fields battery and hydrogen.
The number of employees remained at the previous year's level of around 20,600 – 8,200 were employed in Germany and around 12,400 abroad.
“We achieved solid financial results in 2025 despite a challenging environment. However, to expand our market position, we must adapt to a new reality in global markets. That is why we are further developing the company structurally in 2026 – with the clear goal of remaining a successful and financially independent family-owned company that is globally competitive as a leader in innovation,” said Thomas Böck, Chairman of the Management Board, at the Festo Press Conference during the Hannover Messe 2026.
Clear focus on Seamless Automation
Festo is focusing on Seamless Automation and continued to invest over 8% of its turnover in research and development in 2025. The focus this year, as in previous years, is on strengthening Festo’s competitiveness and technological leadership through a globally oriented R&D organization. Professor Tomas Smetana will continue this course of innovation with fresh impetus as the new Member of the Management Board for Research and Development starting in May 2026.
“Seamless Automation represents our broad portfolio of solutions on the market, featuring end-to-end connectivity and an intuitive digital experience for our customers. With our comprehensive portfolio, we meet virtually every requirement for industrial motion thanks to electrical automation, pneumatics, fluidics, and Didactic. Everything fits together: mechanical and digital, from hardware to software and the appropriate training offerings,” said Thomas Böck.
At the Hannover Messe, Festo is showcasing the full range of its integrated portfolio. By seamlessly integrating electrical automation, pneumatics, digital functions, and AI into their machines and systems, customers can gain a clear competitive advantage.
Outlook 2026
Automation and qualification are driving Festo’s growth. With its broad Seamless Automation portfolio, Festo aims to create growth opportunities in existing and emerging industries within factory and process automation – from semicon, food, and packaging to intralogistics and life sciences, and on to the future-oriented fields of battery and hydrogen.
“We want to capture growth opportunities in Automation and Didactic. Automation holds great potential for improving efficiency and sustainability across all industries. At the same time, technical education plays a central role. It empowers people to overcome industrial challenges and shape an economically successful, sustainable future,” emphasized Thomas Böck.
Festo is a global player and an independent family-owned company with headquarters in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. Festo has set standards in industrial automation technology and technical education ever since its establishment, thereby making a contribution to sustainable development of the environment, the economy and society. The company supplies pneumatic and electrical automation technology to 300,000 customers of factory and process automation in over 35 industries. Digitalization, AI and the LifeTech sector with medical technology and laboratory automation are becoming increasingly important. The products and services are available in 176 countries. With about 20,600 employees in over 250 branch offices in around 60 countries worldwide, Festo achieved a turnover of around €3.33 billion in 2025. More than 8% of this turnover is invested in research and development. In this learning company, 1.5 % of turnover is invested in basic and further training. Festo Didactic SE is a leading provider of technical education and training and offers its customers worldwide comprehensive digital and physical learning solutions in the industrial environment.
