As it celebrates its 75th Anniversary, pneumatic automation specialist Festo has bucked the industry trend in the global market. The company has enjoyed a record year - both in terms of sales revenue and investment - returning 1,200 million Euros in turnover, over 6.6% of which was reinvested in R and D operations for new product developments. Studies show shrinkage of 5% for the global pneumatics market over the past couple of years, resulting in lean times for many automation businesses.
In contrast, Festo (a private family-owned company) has succeeded in growing its business and gaining market share.
The UK arm, Festo Ltd, grew more than 10% in revenue, while the company's share of the European Market reached 32% - estimated to be more than double that of the nearest competitor.
In addition, Festo Ltd was able to invest over 4.5% of its turnover in IT infrastructure to further improve service through an integrated business structure.
Aside from the numeric statistics, a key indicator of the company's performance is the successful completion of a new Technology Centre in Berkheim, Stuttgart, itself requiring DM 85 million of funding.
The official opening of the new building on 28th September marked the end of one of the largest building projects Festo has ever undertaken and coincided with the company's 75th anniversary.
`Designed and built to reflect the state-of-the-art in technology, ecology and communication - and to further extend Festo service capabilities - the new Technical Centre houses brand new R and D facilities to keep the company ahead of market requirements.
It also includes large permanent exhibition resources to keep Festo customers up to speed with the company's leading-edge automation developments.
The opening of the Technical Centre comes just months after unveiling the latest expansion of the new pan-European Customer Service Logistics Centre (CSC).
The CSC reflects the trend towards centralised distribution.
Stock held here is now available for despatch before 3.00pm for next day delivery anywhere in Great Britain.
Service is a fundamental differentiator of business for all global manufacturers and suppliers - especially those in commodity markets.
Festo long ago recognised the commoditisation of automation products, despite the high technology nature of some of its advanced solutions, and moved to change its service profile.
Diversification of the support infrastructure laid the ground for the implementation of an impressive Premier Resale network.
In turn, this altered the function of the traditional sales role, allowing Festo to redeploy its sales engineering resources through Automation Consultants.
These key staff members are able to take a longer-term view in the support of customers across disciplines such as applications, technology drivers and commercial business requirements.
More recently, Festo has reduced its Automation Consultants' client base to increase customer focus while retaining high levels of engineering support.
This is seen as yet another positive factor contributing to the continuing success of the company, against all market indicators, in its landmark 75th year.
Editors Note: About Festo - Worldwide, there are 52 autonomous Festo companies with 250 branch offices and approved dealers in a further 36 countries.
The global service infrastructure of Festo covers 176 countries, supporting a customer base of over 300,000.
Factory floor area at 10 sites worldwide covers 70,000m2 (approx.), with a further 22,300m2 given over to customer service operations.
The company's product range comprises more than 16,400 individual items in several hundred thousand variants.
Festo holds 2,800 patents worldwide and has been the recipient of 42 design awards in the period 1998 to 2000.