igus achieves €1 billion mark in sales and increases no. of active customers by 5%

Despite the challenging geopolitical and economic situation in 2024, igus, the motion plastics specialist, was able to increase the number of active customers by 5% and maintain its billion-euro turnover. With sales of €1.105 billion (US$1.25 billion), the company recorded just a slight decline in turnover of 2.5%.

With 277 motion plastics innovations in 2025, igus is also presenting a record number of new lubrication-free plastic products in line with the motto ‘GO ZERO Lubrication’ from PTFE-free materials to a complete energy chain series made of recycled materials, new dry cleanroom certificate and a humanoid robot. This is the result of continuous R&D investment to offer customers state-of-the-art solutions.

Tobias Vogel, CEO Plain Bearings and Linear Technology at igus said, “The changing political and economic conditions didn’t leave us entirely unaffected. Like many of our customers, we are also focusing on savings and increased efficiency, e.g. through increased automation in our factory. However, our focus is always on the question: What’s in it for the customer? These challenges are an even greater incentive for us to break new ground and prove our innovative ‘Made in Germany’ strength  to reinforce both our competitiveness and that of our customers.”

In the last 5 years, igus has invested over €350 million (US$395 million) in Cologne alone – in land, buildings, state-of-the-art machines, software, new products, people and marketing. According to Tobias, the entire igus campus in Cologne now covers around 218,000 sq.metre. igus test laboratory, which is the largest in the industry, has also grown to almost 5,500 sq.metre.

Michael Blass, CEO of e-chain systems at igus said, “The customer is at the centre of all our activities. For this reason, our investments are deliberately close to our customers.” As an example, igus is expanding its branch in Shanghai from around 25,000 to 70,000 sq.metre with a new building. In Bangalore, the production area has even been tripled thanks to a new 16,000 sq.metre igus campus. This means that ten countries now have their own customer test areas so that users can quickly and easily find their individual Low Cost Automation solution on site. Three of these locations (USA, China, Brazil) will be expanded into regional hubs, so that production and development will also be increasingly localised. We are also investing in the expansion of branches in other countries such as Japan, Spain, Taiwan and Poland.

In terms of sustainability, igus has currently reached the 92% mark of its target to be CO₂-neutral with its buildings and production by the end of 2025, measured against Scopes 1 and 2. However, sustainability must also be an integral part of product innovations. This is why igus is presenting environmentally friendly solutions such as PTFE-free versions of the iglidur standard plain bearing materials G, X and H at Hannover Messe 2025 – with the same performance at almost the same price. Regarding energy chains, the igus is also converting its entire E2.1 series to recycled material consisting of post-consumer recyclate, such as old fishing nets, and disused energy chains, which the company recycles as part of its own “Chainge” programme. This reduces the CO₂ footprint by 80%.

igus is also currently developing its first humanoid robot made of high-performance plastic. It is based on the mobile robot ReBeL Move and uses ReBeL cobots for its robot arms. This means that it can be used flexibly and from any location at different workstations – with a return on investment (ROI) of less than 1 year.