Burda's historical treasure trove is hidden in the basement of the building in the Arabellastreet. Sabrina Maier and Martin Amling are the guardians of the company's archives. Their most important tool? A scanner.
Hubert Burda Media is looking back on a satisfactory financial year despite Russia’s war of aggression in Europe, skyrocketing energy and production costs, and high inflation: In 2022, the Burda Group generated over €2.9 billion in revenue from roughly 500 products in Germany and 18 other countries – maintaining a stable revenue level with the previous year. The Group employed more than 10,500 people at the end of 2022.
Despite the growing challenges, the Executive Board of Hubert Burda Media is optimistic about the current financial year.
"In a difficult year, Burda performed well in 2022 as a Group of strong companies, investing heavily in innovation and strengthening itself as a platform. The transformation continues: only with our entrepreneurial spirit, a clear focus on innovation and openness to technology will we be able to make a difference.”
Martin Weiss, CEO Hubert Burda Media
In 2022, Hubert Burda Media was divided into three operational divisions that focus on business models in their scope: Consumer Media, B2B Media and Services, and Commerce.
The Group’s media and publishing businesses are bundled in the Consumer Media division. Burda’s German and international publishing segments operate a variety of print and online businesses that deliver long-term profitability and generated €1.1 billion in sales revenue last year. Burda invested heavily in several markets in 2022. For instance, Burda took over a leading British nutrition platform, Nutracheck, and integrated it into Immediate Media, Burda’s media company in Great Britain. Nutracheck was the largest new investment last year and is a growth driver for the media business in the food and health segment.
The B2B Media and Services division bundles all of the professional services that Burda provides for enterprise customers. These include the majority shareholding in New Work SE, which operates Germany’s leading career platform Xing, the rating platform kununu, BurdaDruck, and the C3 agency group. Sales revenue in this division rose by 8.3 percent in 2022 to €536.5 million. Mainly B2B revenue grew in the New Work group – thanks to its strategic realignment to the growth segment of B2B e-recruiting. Sales revenue in the print business also increased over the previous year, with costs also rising sharply for raw materials and energy.
The Commerce division comprises the Group’s key internet-based activities in the areas of e-commerce and travel. Additionally, the investment business in digital companies is bundled in this division. In 2022, the Commerce division generated a total of €1.2 billion in sales revenue.
BurdaCommerce includes electronic e-commerce shareholdings in Cyberport GmbH, computeruniverse GmbH, and CyberSolutions GmbH, as well as Silkes Weinkeller, an online wine retailer. After strong growth during the pandemic, business was down slightly in this area.
The HolidayCheck Group achieved a clear increase in turnover due to significantly higher travel activities after the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath. The digital travel platform also diversified its business models, started a successful club business, and began selling advertising space to travel providers.
Burda’s international investment arm, which provides long-term growth capital for fast-growing technology and media companies, also expanded its portfolio to include 27 participating interests. BPI participated in a round of financing for Nord Security, an online data protection and security solutions provider, bringing another "unicorn" into the portfolio in 2022. Through its investment in the German startup Arive, BPI has expanded its portfolio with another express delivery service. Another new addition to the portfolio is Patronus, a German startup which develops digital tools to help senior citizens.
Hubert Burda Media continues to work consistently on its digital transformation and on building and expanding new business models in 2023. The Group anticipates largely stable sales revenues for 2023.
| 2021 | 2022 | Change | |||
| million € | in % | million € | in % | ACTUAL (in %) | |
| Consumer Media | 1,160,1 | 39.4 | 1,124,5 | 38.5 | – 3,1 |
| B2B Media and Services | 495.4 | 16.8 | 536.5 | 18.4 | 8.3 |
| Commerce | 1,276.6 | 43.4 | 1,247.8 | 42.7 | – 2.3 |
| Other | 12.5 | 0.4 | 12.5 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
|
Sale revenue |
2,944.6 | 100.0 | 2,921.3 | 100.0 | – 0.8 |
