Growth fuels office and production expansion for Beckhoff in Verl, Germany

SOURCE: Beckhoff Automation

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By the close of financial year 2010, Beckhoff Automation achieved its strongest sales growth since 1987: the global turnover of approximately $500 million represents impressive growth of 46% compared to the previous year and growth of 24% compared to 2008. 

Beckhoff Automation can look back on an extraordinarily successful financial year. “We have registered pleasingly high growth across all geographic areas and branches of industry. Our existing customers have regained their previous strength and have been joined by new customers and new fields of business,” said Managing Director, Hans Beckhoff. “One of the main growth areas is the Asian market, but we also grew by 45% in North America and Germany last year.” The current growth drivers include alternative energies, which already constitute 20% of total Beckhoff turnover. The company is also optimistic about the current financial year and is expecting an increase in turnover of more than 30% in 2011.

“Our PC Control technology is used in a wide range of industries. PC Control stands for high-performance PLC, motion, control technology and communication software. Beyond that, the convergence of automation and information technology is highly beneficial for many users. The outstanding performance of the CPUs in our PCs makes ultra-fast control technology possible on the basis of eXtreme Fast Control technology (XFC). In addition, Scientific Automation represents the successful integration of engineering science into automation. These beneficial system characteristics are understood and accepted by engineers all over the world. Our international business development is, therefore, considered to be particularly important and will continue to be driven forward intensively. Beckhoff currently has an export share of 50%. We expect this level to increase to between 60 and 70% of total turnover in the coming years,” explained Hans Beckhoff.

In 2010 Beckhoff established further subsidiaries in Israel, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan. The company is presently represented in 62 countries worldwide by 28 subsidiaries and by distributors.

The rapid development of the company in the past year also led to a 26% increase in the number of employees to 1,700 worldwide at the end of 2010. Due to the continuing growth, a further 250 employees were hired by the end of March 2011 alone, so that the current number of employees now stands at 1,950 globally.

Office and production capacities expand at the company’s headquarters in Verl, Germany

The strong growth has made an expansion of Beckhoff production capacities necessary, with new factory buildings and manufacturing machines. The office and production areas at the Verl, Germany headquarters location were expanded by 6,000 sq. meters in 2010. With a total of five new high-speed placement lines, it was possible for Beckhoff to triple production capacities for electronic printed circuit boards and motherboards. The continuous development of the company’s facilities will resume at the end of 2011 with the occupation of an additional 11,000 sq. meter office building and the construction of further new production facilities.

www.beckhoff.com

Beckhoff Automation

- Edited by Gust Gianos, Plant Engineering, www.plantengineering.com