Press Release

• Bosch Ukraine maintains stability in the crisis 2009
• Increased focus on training and environmental projects

After a challenging year in 2009, The Bosch Group continues to invest in Ukraine, and sees opportunity for some growth in the region in 2010.

Despite difficulties, the company has continued to implement vital projects.

As a result of the economic circumstances, which signficantly affected the Ukrainian economy, revenue of Bosch Ukraine fell in 2009 by almost 53 percent to 44 million euros, compared to 93 million euros in 2008.

In order to maintain financial stability, Bosch implemented a series of measures to reduce costs at all levels and retain most all of its personnel and clients.

Reduction of working hours substantially compensated for the under-utilization of capacity caused by decreased sales, and enabled the company to avoid layoffs.

During difficult economic conditions, the company concentrated heavily on remaining a reliable partner for its clients. Its policy of "operational flexibility” on financial issues was favorably received by its clientele.

"We were able to retain more than 90% of our clients,” said Rene Schlegel, Bosch Group representative Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

"This is a very good result, since such crisis-tested relations are the basis for restoring sales when business starts to recover. It was crucial for us to maintain available goods for the general public at client's retail outlets.”

Investments in the future - a guarantee of successful development The increasing sophistication of automotive technologies and systems demands that professional personnel are trained to service and repair them. Therefore, in 2009, Bosch opened a Bosch Training Center in Kiev where up to 2,000 automotive service workers will be trained annually.

Bosch and ZF Trading, the two largest global manufacturers and suppliers of solutions for the automotive industry in the market for used spare parts, signed a partnership agreement, conducted three joint training seminars in Kiev for the personnel of partners’ service stations, as well as hosted the "Innovation Day 2009” conference.

In September 2009, nine students from four Ukrainian technical and transport institutes received grants for professional development under the "Bosch Grant – The First Step to a Business Career” program.

They will participate in a series of seminars for instructors, as well as lectures and practical seminars for students at Ukrainian automotive institutes.

Focus on the renewable energies for the future
Transition to environmentally clean, energy-saving technologies is a process that requires long-term investment in training high-quality professionals.

In December 2009, a joint initiative of Robert Bosch and the Kiev Polytechnic Institute opened a scientific training center for renewable technologies (NTUU KPI-Bosch), working with advanced prototypes of energy-efficient equipment that use the renewable energy from the earth, water and sun.

Economy and the environment
In 2009, at the Bosch automotive starter and generator refurbishment plant in Krakovets in the Lvov Region, 150,000 starters were refurbished.

Replacement of the spare parts with newer technology prevented almost 1,500 metric tons of CO₂ from being emitted into the atmosphere. Bosch is one of the leading global manufacturers of refurbished automotive components.

Slightly optimistic outlook
Bosch estimates the prospects for further development in the region with some optimism. "Growth in our region will resume, but it will not reach 2008 levels soon,” Rene Schlegel said.

"We expect that in 2011, our business as a whole will return to the level of 2007, and in 2013-2014, will again be on the level of 2008.

Growth rates for each division are naturally different. In business fields where we have a market share of less than 20 percent, there is more growth potential than in areas where we already occupy a large share of the market.”

For additional information, contact:
Julia Golubtsova, OOO Robert Bosch 
Tel.:  +7 495 937-04-02   
Fax: +7 495 937-71-99   
e-mail: julia.golubtsova@ru.bosch.com 

May 11, 2010