Still on track: DOLL Fahrzeugbau remains stable during the crisis
With generally positive results behind us for 2020, DOLL Fahrzeugbau GmbH can continue with its growth trajectory in 2021. The Oppenau-based company has not made it through the ongoing coronavirus crisis completely unscathed, but losses and gains were balanced on the whole – in fact, with a slight sway towards the credit side. “The heavy and timber transport sectors have proved to be extremely resilient to the crisis. We were able to achieve the expected sales in 2020 and the incoming orders were actually higher than planned,” explains managing director Markus Ehl. The volume of orders already almost covers the target sales for 2021. DOLL® is therefore continuing on its growth trajectory in the timber and heavy transport sectors.
“In terms of airfield vehicles, the catering division was hugely affected by the pandemic,” adds managing director Renato Ramella. “This is hardly surprising in view of the ongoing global travel restrictions and we therefore had to scale back production in this area.” However, development work is still continuing. At the headquarters in Oppenau and the American subsidiary DOLL America Inc., DOLL® is working hard on electromobility and new safety and operating concepts for airfield vehicles.
In addition, the investment activities and range updates adopted recently are proceeding as planned. DOLL® is investing around EUR 4 million in expanding the two German sites in Oppenau and Mildenau with various new features, such as a surface-coating centre. From a product perspective, the focus during 2020 was on the new low-bed X and LOGO 14 semi-trailers for heavy and timber transport. Another highlight was added at the start of 2021 – DOLL® is now launching a new generation of short timber trailers. Together with the new products, DOLL® has also developed new marketing methods further, such as interactive live streams on its Facebook and YouTube channels. Nevertheless, DOLL® is looking forward to being able to greet customers and interested parties back to in-house exhibitions and trade fairs.