Shaping the future with independent audits and digital innovations

At a glance:

• The TÜV NORD GROUP has had another successful year:Revenue in the 2023 financial year grew by 9.1 percent to 1,583.3 million euros; EBIT before special items increased by 10.3 percent to 84.5 million euros.
• Investments reached a new high of 134 million euros.
• The TÜV NORD GROUP sees the energy, mobility, digital and sustainability transitions as growth drivers at home and abroad and is committed to accelerating the accompanying infrastructure expansion at project and authority level.
• As part of the world of work, Artificial Intelligence is gradually becoming a digital assistant and co-pilot in testing, auditing and process monitoring.
• Digital learning worlds: the Group invests in start-up for immersive learning.
• As an international knowledge group, the TÜV NORD GROUP is committed to diversity and democracy.

In the 2023 financial year, the TÜV NORD GROUP was able to further expand the trust of its global customers in the technical reliability, digital security and sustainability of products and processes. “Thanks to our high levels of expertise and experience, people all over the world can rely on the fact that major technological transformations such as Artificial Intelligence or sustainable forms of energy will benefit not only our customers, but also society at large and the environment,” said Dirk Stenkamp, Chairman of the Board of Management of TÜV NORD AG, at the annual press conference in Hanover. “As a reliable and highly innovative partner to our customers, we are actively driving the energy, mobility, digital and sustainability transitions – in our home market of Germany and in many of the more than 100 countries in which we operate. In many cases, it’s our core services that make broad social acceptance of new technologies possible in the first place. This high level of customer confidence is also reflected in our key economic figures for the 2023 financial year.”

Successfully implementing the energy transition

“The energy transition is both the greatest challenge to, and the greatest opportunity for, Germany since reunification. It must succeed for Germany to become established as a leading business location for sustainable technologies worldwide,” Dirk Stenkamp continued. “The transformation of our energy industry into a secure, affordable and carbon-neutral energy supplier is a mammoth project in which much remains to be done.” With its extensive expertise and experience in the generation, transport, storage and conversion of forms of energy, the TÜV NORD GROUP is a key partner to the energy industry and to ministries and authorities at federal, state and local level.

“Hydrogen will play a central role on the path to carbon neutrality,” Dirk Stenkamp emphasised. “We need the rapid and efficient expansion of electrolysis capacities from green electricity, along with an effective import strategy for hydrogen and reliable infrastructure for transporting and storing hydrogen at scale. Politicians have set the course, and now the planned large-scale hydrogen projects must be implemented. We’re going to have to boost the frequently cited speed at which Germany does things by shifting up at least one gear.” At the German Renewables Award 2023, TÜV NORD took first place in the “Hydrogen Innovation of the Year” category. In many cases, experts from the TÜV NORD GROUP are supporting their customers worldwide in the decarbonisation of the energy industry (excerpt):

• The used electric vehicle market is developing rapidly, providing access to sustainable and affordable mobility for broad swaths of society. To support this trend, TÜV NORD Mobilität is offering an innovative used car check for traction batteries in electric vehicles. Consumers are being supported with reliable data and information, and the used electric car market is becoming more transparent and safer.
• TÜV NORD subsidiary Energy Engineers is supporting the construction of a 100 MW electrolyser by Dutch company VoltH2 for the production of green hydrogen in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
• With the H2-Readiness seal from TÜV NORD CERT, customers from around the world can prove that their plans, projects and products are suitable for use in hydrogen applications. These include the production, storage, transport and application of hydrogen.
• With the extension of its photovoltaic laboratory in Suzhou, TÜV NORD China is further expanding its testing capacities for leading PV manufacturers and supporting the global expansion of photovoltaics, including in the Middle East, South America and Europe.
• The TÜV NORD GROUP’s social commitment to a liveable environment was recognised by its progression to the final round of the German Sustainability Award.

AI applications for even more customer focus and less bureaucracy

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role as an assistant and co-pilot for the products and services of the TÜV NORD GROUP. AI is already being used in all areas of the company, in the form of TÜV NORD’s “Sophie” chatbot and in the “Safeguard” intelligent sensor data platform, for example.

The TÜV NORD “Voize” smart voice assistant is being used in the peridoic technical inspection of motor vehicles to make test results available even more easily and quickly and to relieve employees of repetitive routine tasks. In the inspection of wind turbines, AI-based image analysis is being used to assess their condition. Since the beginning of 2024, all employees have been able to use the Group’s very own TÜV NORD GPT. “With the TÜV AI.Lab in Berlin, which was launched in 2023, we’re continuing to drive forward the development of methods and standards for testing with a particular focus on safety-critical AI applications,” said Dirk Stenkamp. “To this end, we’re translating requirements from the EU AI Act into test criteria and processes for independent third-party testing.” With the support of AI, the TÜV NORD GROUP is making an active contribution to reducing bureaucracy and boosting resource efficiency.

 Certification for sustainable natural resources

How sustainably natural resources are extracted and used for consumer products such as mobile phones or in the construction of large-scale technical plants is shown by a newly developed certification scheme called TÜV NORD CERA 4in1. The standard, which was jointly developed by the subsidiaries DMT and TÜV NORD CERT, makes it possible for the first time to provide comprehensive evidence that natural resources are mined and processed in an ecologically, socially and economically sustainable manner, from exploration to extraction and processing through to use in the end product. The TÜV NORD CERA 4in1 Performance Standard is the first standard in this area to arrive on the market – three further CERA 4in1 standards will follow in 2025 and 2026.

Balance sheet: Record figures in 2023, once again

“With our financial strategy, we are steadily improving the TÜV NORD GROUP and making it fit for the future,” said Chief Financial Officer Jürgen Himmelsbach. 134 million euros were invested in 2023, more than ever before in the company’s more than 150-year history. M&A investments also reached a record high of 56.5 million euros. The Group also invested in customer-friendly TÜV NORD stations for vehicle-related services and a new site in Dortmund (PHOENIX West). “With the acquisition of two companies in Singapore in 2023, we further expanded our presence in the field of system certifications in the South Asian market,” Mr. Himmelsbach continued. Avanta Global currently provides training and testing to more than 5,500 companies. The Avanta Academy runs these programmes for private clients.” The acquisition of TÜVLITA is also proceeding very successfully. The company, originally focused on vehicle testing, has expanded its portfolio to include occupational health and safety activities, as well as tests for lifts and the use of renewable energy.

Despite the sale of a larger company at the beginning of 2023, revenue developed very positively with an increase of 9.1 percent. Following a coronavirus-related decline in 2020, the upward trend in Group revenue thus continued for a further year. “The TÜV NORD GROUP is also in a very good position in terms of other relevant key figures,” said Jürgen Himmelsbach. The equity ratio was 28 percent in 2023, and the operating profit was 84.5 million euros. The TÜV NORD GROUP has a positive net financial position, Mr. Himmelsbach continued. 

Key figures at a glance: 

• Revenue: 1,583.3 million euros (2022: 1,451.8 million euros)
• Operating profit before special items (EBIT): 84.5 million euros (2022: 76.6 million euros)
• Profit before tax (EBT): 81.4 million euros (2022: 78.9 million euros)
• Balance sheet total: 1,192.3 million euros (2022: 1,105.2 million euros)
• Number of employees (FTE, annual average):12,346 – made up of 7,824 domestic and 4,522 international employees (2022: 12,238)

Opening up digital “learning worlds”

The TÜV NORD GROUP is driving the future of learning with its investment in 3spin Learning. The Darmstadt-based company is a leading provider of software for immersive learning experiences. In view of the fact that real places of learning are often difficult to access and activities potentially dangerous (e.g. when working on offshore wind turbines or in steam boilers), TÜV NORD is now opening up new, digital perspectives for seminar participants and internal employee training with the rapidly growing Extended Reality (XR) field. Astrid Petersen, Chief Human Resources Officer and Labour Director: “More than ever, we need to prepare our employees for the challenges of the future with excellent training and development. Immersive, experiential learning is key to this.”

Outstanding employer

For the sixth time in a row, the TÜV NORD GROUP was recently awarded the accolade of “Leading Employer”, and, for the first time, the Group took first place nationwide in the “Services” industry comparison. The associated “Leading Employers 2024” study, for which data from more than 200,000 companies was evaluated, certifies that the Group ranks among the top 1 percent of employers in Germany. In Lower Saxony and Hanover, the TÜV NORD GROUP once again took first place.

Astrid Petersen also emphasised the importance of diversity in the Group: “Diversity is part of our TÜV NORD family and is firmly anchored in our guidelines. We take a clear position in favour of cosmopolitanism and democracy. People from 80 nations work in our company, and we want to continue to grow both at home and abroad.”