For the fifth year in a row, the Sepro Group has created a new robot sales record. In 2017, the Sepro Group equipped robots for more than 3,200 injection molding machines, an increase of 20%, which resulted in a year-on-year increase of 21% in turnover to EUR 126.2 million.
The Sepro Group's sales in 2017 mainly come from the particularly strong growth in the European market:
➤ Germany has become Sepro's largest market, with sales exceeding 25% and sales exceeding 500 units;
➤ France is Sepro's second largest market, with sales up 30% and sales exceeding 450 units;
➤ In other parts of Europe, such as Austria, Hungary and Switzerland, sales are also very strong. Sepro has established new subsidiaries in these countries in 2016 and 2017. In Spain, sales have soared by 57%.
In North America, the growth of the Sepro Group remained strong, with total sales exceeding 650 units, and the US market alone grew by 13%.
Sepro CEO Jean-Michel Renaudeau said:
➤ Our strong growth in 2017 is based on a solid foundation - we have introduced new products and services and expanded our strategic partners.
In the past 12 months, with the help of our partner Yaskawa Industrial Robotics, we have launched a new medium- and small-size generic six-axis robot product line.
➤ We have released two new smaller Cartesian robots - the three-axis Universal Success5 robot and the S5 angular arm robot.
➤ We have also developed two new Open4.0 applications, including: Opti Cycle for automatic robot loop optimization and Live Support for simplified remote service access.
In summary, the sales of Sepro three-axis robots continued to grow, while the growth of five-axis and six-axis robots developed in cooperation with Yaskawa and Stäubli was even more pronounced.
Strategic partnerships with global injection molding machine manufacturers also contributed to growth in 2017. Renaudeau said that partners like Sumitomo Magna added Sepro's technology to complement their own OEM equipment portfolio, To provide customers with new robot options.
Recently, the Sepro Group has also signed agreements with several new important partners, including Haitian and South Korea’s Woojin Plaim, which also contributed to the growth in 2017.
Renaudeau stated that Sepro's 'open integration' concept for injection molding machines made it easier to adopt technology because all Sepro robots use a single control platform to support multilevel integration with most injection molding machine control systems. .
Although Sepro's global sales continue to grow at a record rate, Renaudeau said that the company will continue to invest in its global infrastructure.
In 2017, Sepro's employees grew by 16%, adding 95 new employees worldwide and setting up new subsidiaries in Switzerland.
At the same time, the company is implementing a global expansion plan of 11 million euros, which will create new manufacturing resources in France and build a new global training center; at Sepro USA, the newly expanded North American center in Warrendale, PA. New robot assembly, engineering and automation capabilities will be added.