News -
Falck significantly strengthened its international position in 2014
In 2014, Falck successfully took further steps towards its goal of becoming a global provider of services assisting people in emergency situations and preventing and mitigating the effects of illness and accidents. Falck significantly strengthened its position on the most important markets in Europe, Latin America and the United States, winning several major new and repeat contracts.
While all geographic areas and business areas contributed to the organic growth, particularly high growth rates were achieved in Latin America, Europe and North America.
Falck now has activities in 45 countries on six continents, and the number of employees increased by more than 2,000 to 34,230 at year-end 2014.
EBITA in 2014 was DKK 1,139 million (EUR 153 million) – DKK 27 million (EUR 4 million) more than in 2013 including a negative exchange rate effect of DKK 17 million (EUR 2 million).
"Our excellent performance in 2014 is very much the result of the dedicated efforts of Falck employees, who are available 24/7 to provide safety and security for people in ever larger parts of the world," said Falck's President and CEO Allan Søgaard Larsen.
Download key figures and financial ratios
Performance in 2014 in Falck's four business areas:
Emergency– Falck is the world's largest international ambulance service provider and the world's largest international fire-fighting operator. Revenue was up by 9.2% to DKK 8.7 billion (EUR 1.2 billion). Organic growth was 8.6%, driven by growth in all regions, especially by the growing customer base in Latin America, new ambulance contracts won in 2013 in Slovakia and a substantial number of new fire-fighting contracts in Belgium, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
Assistance– Falck is the largest provider of assistance services to car and home owners in the Nordic region. Revenue was DKK 3.0 billion (EUR 404 million) - which is on a level with 2013 – after a year with mild winters in Norway and Sweden, resulting in lower revenue because of lower demand for car assistance in those two countries. In Sweden, Falck succeeded in boosting considerably the number of automobile subscriptions, while Falck in both Denmark and Norway sold substantial numbers of alarm solutions.
Healthcare– Falck is the leading provider of employee healthcare plans in Scandinavia covering more than three million people. Falck and TryghedsGruppen agreed to merge their healthcare activities, and in this connection Falck acquired the companies Previa in Sweden and Quick Care in Denmark. The merger is reflected in the 51.7% increase in Healthcare revenue to DKK 1.8 billion (EUR 245 million). The improvement was also the result of strong organic growth at the rate of 11.8%.
Safety Services– Falck is the world's largest provider of rescue and safety training for the off-shore industry and other segments. Despite the negative trends in the oil industry, Safety Services grew their revenue by DKK 50 million (EUR 7 million) to DKK 1.4 billion (EUR 183 million). This increase was mainly attributable to the opening of new training centres and new services and courses introduced to offset the otherwise falling level of activity. By introducing shorter courses, Falck trained more people from the off-shore industry than ever before: 341,800 against 300,500 in 2013.
