Europe remains the "key innovation driver" for ENGEL
Despite North America stealing the headlines in terms of growth, Europe is still a positive market and key innovation driver for ENGEL, the company said at Fakuma.
Commenting, Dr Cristoph Steger, CSO, said that Europe is still the company’s core market with 58 percent of sales in the 2014/15 financial year and that it held good prospects.
"In Europe, where ENGEL has already achieved a high level of market penetration, we also continued to grow in the 2014/15 fiscal year," said Steger. "This year, we are continuing along this trend."
At the trade fair, the company revealed that, after a record year with a turnover of more than one billion Euros in 2014/15, it has been able to boost both its turnover and its order intake in the first half of the 2015/16 financial year.
It did say, however, that although it is “continuing with optimism”, it does not expect to see the high numbers of the last two years repeated.
"The past two years were – from a global perspective – the best we have had for a long time," Steger continued.
"Even without the worldwide tensions, we expect that it will no longer be possible to achieve such high growth rates in the coming years."
The fact that ENGEL is still calculating with a healthy level of incoming orders, he added, is due to the trends in the industry. This includes plastics being substituted for other materials on an increasing scale in the high-tech industry, as well as the demand is growing in all markets for individually designed system solutions with a focus on efficiency, performance and sustainability.
"Thus the areas that are continuing to grow are precisely the areas that ENGEL specialises in," explained ENGEL CEO, Dr Peter Neumann.
In Asia, ENGEL says it has been profiting from these trends for some time. The slowdown in growth in China, Neumann added, reflects the fact that the market has reached a certain degree of maturity and is developing from quantitative growth towards more quality and technology.
Asia and North America are among the strongest motors driving growth and are expected to remain so in coming years.
Technological Innovation on Display
Dismissing claims by press that there is “no injection moulding innovations” at Fakuma, Dr. Stefen Engleder, ENGEL CTO, said that this was “untrue” and that the company itself was showcasing innovation on both a small and large scale.
These, he explained, include the introduction of ‘inject 4.0’ at the show, where the company has designed its stand as a smart factory, with self-optimising production based on three core elements of smart machines, smart production and smart services.
It is also showcasing five applications designed for the automotive, technical moulding, teletronics, packaging and medical industries.
Its medical exhibition space is premiering its all-electric and tie-bar-less ENGEL e-motion TL machine in the new 80-tonne variant producing needle holders.
Expansion and Apprentices
The company highlighted its plans for expansion in the coming year, notably the technology centre at the company headquarters in Schwertberg.
Dr. Neumann said that ENGEL is also continuing to embark on its education and trianing plans across both its European and Asian facilities.
“Apprentices and training a major focus for us and we have a very strong programme,” he commented. “We have a demand for technical staff and exponential growth means we need the right know-how and the right skills within our company.”
In addition, Neumann said that with the growth of Industry 4.0, it needed “the dynamics of a new generation in a digitalised environment.”
Vietnamese Rumours
In addition, the company confirmed that rumours that it is to open a sales and servicing facility in Vietnam were true.
“Yes, this is correct,” said Steger. “One of the largest electronics companies in the world is our customer there, as well as other important customers. It makes sense to put a sales and servicing place there.“