Solid 2025 Results Provide Festo with Basis for Continued Growth, with Focus on Advancing Seamless Automation
May 19, 2026
The Festo Group recorded solid financial results in 2025 despite a challenging business environment. Sales declined only slightly to €3.33 billion (-3.7% from the previous year).
Machinery manufacturers are facing challenging market conditions, hampered by trade barriers such as unpredictable US tariff policies and geopolitical conflicts. Many remain hesitant to invest, the automotive sector and suppliers in particular are feeling the impact of the crisis.
Last year, the company managed to achieve modest sales growth in North and South America as well as Europe excluding the domestic market – for Festo, that’s Germany, Switzerland and Austria – where sales continued to stagnate. The strongest growth came from the Indian market where Festo opened a large, modern plant. The other Asian markets – China, Southeast Asia, Korea, and Japan – saw slight declines.
By industrial segments, growth momentum came from the food and packaging industries, semiconductors and the future-oriented fields of battery and hydrogen production.
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.
For 2026, Festo is focusing on expanding its leadership in innovation and competitiveness by investing in the expansion of Seamless Automation which combines a comprehensive portfolio, seamless connectivity, and an intuitive digital engineering experience. Leveraging this holistic concept, Festo aims to create growth opportunities in existing and emerging industries within factory and process automation – from semiconductors, food and packaging to intralogistics and life sciences, as well as in the future-oriented fields of battery and hydrogen.
Festo continued to spend over 8% of its turnover on R&D last year. Professor Tomas Smetana will continue that approach as the new Member of the Management Board for Research and Development, starting in May.
“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 Böck. Customers can gain a clear competitive advantage.
“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,” added Böck.
About Festo
Festo, the world’s leading supplier of automation technology and technical education, is deploying its products and services to meet the challenges of digitalization and smart production. Founded in 1925, the family-owned company based in Esslingen, Germany, supports a wide range of needs for advanced solutions in factory and process automation. In Canada, Festo has been supporting Canadian industry for 50 years, continuously elevating the state of manufacturing in this country with innovative products, optimized motion control solutions and unrivalled support.
Globally, some 300,000 customers put their trust in the company’s pneumatic and electric drive products and technology. In addition, Festo Didactic provides state-of-the-art training equipment and educational programs for industrial companies and educational institutions – about 56,000 customers worldwide. The Festo Group registered sales of €3.33 billion in the 2025 financial year and is represented worldwide at 250 locations with over 20,600 employees. About 8% of its annual turnover is invested in research and development.
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The Festo Group – Automation for a World in Motion
Festo is an independent family-owned company and a global player in automation technology and technical education, with headquarters in Esslingen a.N. (Germany) – with over 20,000 employees at around 250 locations worldwide, a turnover of 3.33 billion euros and an R&D rate of over 8%. As a partner in motion, Festo offers integrated and seamless pneumatic, electric and digital drive technologies across all industries – including software and AI solutions as well as customized training concepts – for 300,000 customers in over 35 industries in automation and 56,000 education customers worldwide.
