Mercedes 2013 Annual Report Download - page 72

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Business model
Daimler can look back on a tradition covering more than
125 years, a tradition that extends back to Gottlieb Daimler and
Carl Benz, the inventors of the automobile, and features
pioneering achievements in automotive engineering. Today,
the Daimler Group is a globally leading vehicle manufacturer
with an unparalleled range of premium automobiles, trucks, vans
and buses. The product portfolio is completed with a range
of tailored financial services and mobility services.
Daimler AG is the parent company of the Daimler Group and
is domiciled in Stuttgart (Mercedesstraße 137, 70327 Stuttgart,
Germany). The main business of Daimler AG is the devel-
opment, production and distribution of cars, trucks and vans
in Germany and the management of the Daimler Group.
The management reports for Daimler AG and for the Daimler
Group are combined in this management report.
With its strong brands, Daimler is active in nearly all the
countries of the world. The Group has production facilities
in a total of 19 countries and approximately 8,000 sales
centers worldwide. The global networking of research and deve-
lopment activities and of production and sales locations gives
Daimler considerable advantages in international competition,
additional growth opportunities and further potential to
enhance efficiency. In addition, we can apply our innovative
drive and safety technologies in a broad portfolio of vehicles
while utilizing experience and expertise from all parts of the
Group. In the year 2013, Daimler increased its revenue by
3% to €118.0 billion. The individual divisions contributed to this
total as follows: Mercedes-Benz Cars 52%, Daimler Trucks 25%,
Mecedes-Benz Vans 8%, Daimler Buses 3% and Daimler
Financial Services 12%. At the end of 2013, Daimler employed
a total workforce of approximately 275,000 people worldwide.
The products supplied by the Mercedes-Benz Cars division
comprise a broad spectrum of premium vehicles of the Mercedes-
Benz brand, ranging from the compact models of the A- and
B-Class to various sport utility vehicles, road sters, coupes and
convertibles and to the S-Class luxury sedans. Additional pro-
ducts are the high-quality small cars and innovative e-bikes of
the smart brand. The main country of manufacture is Germany,
but the division also has production facilities in the United
States, China, France, Hungary, South Africa, India, Vietnam and
Indonesia, and since August 2013, the A-Class has also been
produced for us by Valvet Automotive in Finland. Worldwide,
Mercedes-Benz Cars has 17 production sites at present. In the
medium term, we anticipate significant growth in worldwide
demand for automobiles and above-average growth in the
premium car segment. To ensure that we can participate in this
development, we are creating additional production capacities,
especially in China, the United States and India. In 2013, we also
decided to expand our global production network with a
new plant in Brazil. We plan to produce the next generation
of the C-Class as well as the GLA compact SUV there for the
local market starting in 2016. The most important markets
for Mercedes-Benz Cars in 2013 were Germany with 18% of unit
sales, the other markets of Western Europe (23%), the United
States (20%) and China (15%).
Corporate Profile.
Mercedes-Benz Cars 52%
Daimler Trucks 25%
Mercedes-Benz Vans 8%
Daimler Buses 3%
Daimler Financial Services 12%
Consolidated revenue by division
C.01