Sepro credits collaboration for third record year

At Fakuma, Sepro Group announced it is celebrating its third consecutive year of record sales in 2015.

Jean-Michel Renaudeau, CEO of Sepro, said the only question that remains is exactly how big an increase the final figures will reveal.

Bookings through mid-October have already exceeded the total recorded in 2014, which was €79.2 million and the company anticipates it will surpass that number by at least 13 percent, exceeding €90 million.

Renaudeau said he attributes this growth to the company’s “on-going commitment” to collaboration.

“Today,” he explained, “Sepro is among the top three suppliers of robots to the global plastics industry and some people might ask how a relatively small, independent French company could achieve such results.

“The answer is that we did it by multiplying our own capabilities through partnerships with other companies who want to change the robotic automation market. By being open to collaboration with injection-moulding-machine manufacturers, other automation companies, and research institutions, Sepro has been able to make big things happen in a short period of time.”

Since the Economic Crisis in 2009, Sepro’s turnover has increased almost 250 percent. This remarkable record of success, Renaudeau said, is the result of a major commitment to research and development, and to business and technology partnerships.

Regarding sales in individual markets, Renaudeau said the UK had been a “positive highlight” with 53 percent growth.

“The UK market is actually coming back to industry, so that is very positive indeed,” he commented.

Introducing the New Lines

Fakuma marks the first showing of the company’s three new robotic product lines in Europe, something that Renaudau said “was very important.”

Three new lines of Sepro robots for plastics injection-moulding machines with 700 to 5000 tons of clamping capacity are making their debuts; the new premium 7X Line, the S7 technical range and the Strong range, which represents a general-purpose line of large robots.

The new large robots improve upon the Sepro Generation 4 Line, which previously covered high-tonnage moulding applications. The new S7 Line 3-axis robots and 7X Line 5-axis robots have longer kick (Y-axis) stokes, longer vertical (Z-axis) strokes and can handle larger payloads than their G4 predecessors.

Strategy for 2016

Renaudau said the strategy going forward into 2016 was to build on the number of partnerships the company has, with other robot manufacturers, injection moulding machine manufacturers, research units and key customers.

“It is a clear choice to offer our customers more choice,” said Renaudau. “We want to have a strong portfolio to always offer choice to our customers, no matter what the application, or where they are in the world, what the make of IMM.”