The highly developed social market economy of Germany, one of the founding members of the EU, is the largest in Europe. However, according to Destatis, 2019 was the year when Germany demonstrated the lowest economy expansion since 2013 - 0.6% only. Although manufacturing turned out to be the least performing sector in 2019, the country is still keeping its leading position in exports.
The country is one of the world’s most prominent exporters with machinery, electronic and electrical equipment, vehicles, pharmaceuticals, food and others as the main income items. So no wonder that the largest local companies by revenue are mostly representing these industries. We at Global Database created this list of top 10 public companies in Germany by revenue in 2019 to help get acquainted with them.
**All figures are in USD. M: Millions of USD, B: Billions of USD
**EUR was converted to USD using an average exchange rate of 0.88 EUR to 1 USD
1. Talanx - $42.39B
Talanx is the biggest insurance company in Germany by revenue as of 2019 - $42.39B. Its activity is focused on providing B2B insurance. Talanx operates across 150 countries, employing around 21,000 professionals for the purpose. According to the company’s financial reports, its 2019 revenues and profits have grown with 9.8% and 9.5% respectively in comparison with 2018.
2. Lufthansa Group - $42,3B
Deutsche Lufthansa AG (further Lufthansa) is the biggest airline in Germany by multiple criteria, including the annual revenue ($42.3B as of 2019) and the local flag carrier. It is also one of the European leaders according to the number of passengers carried every day. It employs almost 116,000 professionals all over the world. Lufthansa is a part of the Star Alliance - the world’s biggest international airline alliance.
3. Fresenius - $39.57B
Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA (further Fresenius) is a well-known healthcare enterprise, located in Germany. It is focused on providing hospital products and services, including products for dialysis and medical care. The 4 divisions of the company, operating in Europe and North America, are managed by over 294,000 employees, who helped the company earn $39.57B in annual revenue in 2019.
4. Edeka Zentrale - $40.45B
Edeka Group (further Edeka) is the biggest supermarket corporation in Germany, operating a chain of over 13,000 supermarkets. The company reported annual revenues of $40.45B and profits of $380B in 2019, that has grown by 9% and 10.1% respectively compared to 2018. Edeka offers jobs to 376,000 employees across the country.
5. E.ON - $35.7B
E.ON SE (further E.ON) is a large international energy industry representative, focused on electric utility. The company serves more than 33M customers in 30 countries (including most of the territory of Scandinavia), bolstered by the effort of over 43,000 employees. E.ON earned $35.7B in annual revenues and $3.8B in profits in 2019.
6. DZ Bank - $31.98B
DZ Bank AG (further DZ Bank) is the largest German bank by annual revenue ($31.98B) and the 2nd biggest by assets ($592.91B) as of 2019. The company consists of over 900 co-operative banks, running around 12,000 branches. DZ Bank employs almost 29,000 professionals, whose joint effort resulted in the 6th place for the company in the German public companies rating for 2019 by revenue.
7. Phoenix Pharma - $30.29B
PHOENIX Pharmahandel Aktiengesellschaft & Co KG (further Phoenix Pharma) is the German’s biggest pharmaceuticals wholesaler. With 153 distribution centres in the country under its operation and almost 30,000 employees, Phoenix Pharma also is the 2nd largest industry representative in Europe. The company has started 2020 with annual revenue of $30.29B and assets of $9.6B.
8. SAP - $29.16B
SAP SE (further SAP) is an international software corporation, headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, that focuses on the production of enterprise software for business management. More than 425,000 customers of SAP in 180 countries, as well as almost 100,000 employees, have contributed to the company’s impressive annual revenue of 2019 - $29,16B.
9. Adidas - $25.92B
Adidas AG (further Adidas) is the most famous German sports shoes, clothes and accessories manufacturer. It has ended 2019 as the country’s largest representative of the industry with a revenue of $25.92B. This is 5.1% more than in the previous year. Adidas is one of the biggest employers from Germany, giving jobs to over 57,000 professionals across the world.
10. Ceconomy - $26.13B
Ceconomy AG (further Ceconomy) is a large consumer electronics retailer from Germany. It appeared after the demerger of the relevant division of Metro AG and now manages the Media Markt and Saturn chains. In less than 2 years of its existence, Ceconomy managed to get an annual revenue of $26.13B by the end of 2019, which is almost 7% more than the previous year’s numbers.
