Wibu-Systems Achieves Record Year with €1.5 Million Employee Profit Share

In a year marked by global economic challenges, Wibu-Systems, the world renowned software protection, licensing, and security specialists, achieved a remarkably successful year again, thanks to its commitment to Made-in-Germany quality standards, prudent management of its critical supply chain, success in the Chinese market, and continued innovative prowess. The company celebrated this milestone by distributing a record €1.5 million in bonuses to its permanent headquarter staff.

Wibu-Systems, maker of the popular CodeMeter family of protection and licensing solutions, has a long history of letting its people share in the company’s financial fortunes. Even before moving to a new legal form as a public limited company in 1995, the owner-run IT specialist had profit sharing agreements in place for its permanent technical, commercial, and administrative personnel at its Karlsruhe head office. With the company’s dedication to ethical business practices, continued innovation, and a positive work environment, the payments were just one of many reasons to join Wibu-Systems, but 2023 proved to be a unique case: With the world economy in an uncertain state and families everywhere beginning to feel the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and rising inflation, a financial windfall would come as welcome relief for every household. At Wibu-Systems, this came true in the form of a record payout to the company’s permanent staff in Karlsruhe. Outside of Germany, employees at Wibu-Systems USA subsidiary were awarded a similar profit-sharing plan. Subsidiaries in China, Japan, and the network of sales offices across Europe received payments in accordance with their local bonus schemes.

All of this was made possible by the exceptional financial global performance of the firm in 2023. The company's unparalleled success of the past fiscal year, a pinnacle in its thirty-five-year history, can be attributed to a confluence of key factors: The digital transition around the world generated increased demand for IT security and licensing technology, with the Chinese market reporting particularly positive figures for Wibu-Systems. But expert and prudent management played a pivotal role: The uncertainty in the global political and commercial climate called for preventative measures aimed at bringing the entire supply chain under local control.

The company’s continued commitment to Germany as not just its physical home, but also as a standard-bearer for quality and technological innovation and as a safe haven for the company’s carefully managed and governed critical infrastructure, meant that not only Wibu-Systems’ supply chains were secure, but its customers continued to enjoy new and award-winning software and hardware innovations and reliable, ISO 9001:2015 and ISO/IEC 27001:2013-certified quality. While Germany is the cradle for all research, development, key manufacturing activities, and core operations, Europe is the outpost for strategic supply, partnerships, and joint innovative projects.

This approach to a relatively local supply chain has several advantages, including a lower environmental impact, faster lead times, a stimulus for the local economy, lower disruption risks in the supply chain, and flexibility, as implementing changes and customizing solutions in response to market demands becomes easier when you are in full control.

For Oliver Winzenried, founder and CEO of Wibu-Systems, the combination of record sales and yet another record bonus payment is an incentive to continue improving: “We owe this success to our people. But it should also spur us on to do even better, to listen even more to our clients, and to give them exactly what they need. They trust us, and we want them to know that their confidence in us is well-placed. The people of Wibu-Systems will continue to excel, and we will continue to reward them for their hard work.”