Strong growth through automation and digitalization solutions

Acquisitions and development of growth markets strengthens position

The good result was also supported by the takeover of the Weidmüller sales companies in the USA, Canada and Mexico in October 2017. The acquisition played a major role in the increase in sales in the North America region by around 30 percent compared to the previous year. At the same time, Weidmüller invested in important growth markets in Southeast Asia by establishing a Group company in India, a sales office in Taiwan and the acquisition of the Malaysian distributor ConnectPlus Technology. "The acquisition supports our growth strategy in terms of industrial connectivity, communication and digitalization," says Alvarez Tobar. "This presence enables us to drive forward our strategy and our focus on automation and digitalization solutions in the regions more consistently - we have already achieved noticeable effects in the first few months of the year." As a result of the acquisitions, Weidmüller employed almost 4,700 people worldwide at the end of 2017 - around 1,800 of them at the Detmold site.

Investments in research and development as well as modernization and expansion of the global production network

At 44.6 million euros, Weidmüller invested almost five percent of its turnover in research and development in 2017. This is set to continue in the future. "The new construction of our customer and technology center in Detmold will be completed in the third quarter - the largest investment in Weidmüller's history and an important component in the development of new solutions and services," explains Elke Eckstein, Chief Operations Officer and Chief Digitalization Officer. In addition, a new innovative research and development site is being created on the Future Mile in Paderborn as part of an investor project. Weidmüller is the overall project manager for the project and will be a tenant alongside the University of Paderborn and the Fraunhofer Institute. The company is driving forward concrete research projects in the "It's OWL" technology network, which has just been extended by five years. The company is represented here with several projects on important future topics - including digital platforms, machine learning in production and the digital twin. At the same time, Weidmüller is also investing in the expansion and modernization of production capacities in order to be prepared for the increasing demands of the coming years. "Last year, we successfully completed the conversion of our metal and surface production in Detmold and the expansion of our production facilities in the Czech Republic," explains Eckstein. "In February of this year, we also broke ground for the consolidation and expansion of the production halls in Suzhou, China."

Involving employees in cultural change through digitalization

In future, the Detmold-based company will place a strong focus on driving cultural and mental change. To this end, the company is actively involving its employees in the changes brought about by digitalization. "Digitalization can only work together with the employees. Involving them in the process at an early stage and approaching them is a crucial aspect that we are currently working on intensively," says Eckstein. "We are changing our structures and work organization in order to become more agile and adapt to changes more quickly. The focus is on the employees and they are the key to success."

In the future, Weidmüller wants to become an even stronger partner for the implementation of digitalization and offer customers solutions that decisively drive the digital transformation of industry. The company intends to drive forward its development to date with the three target areas of Industrial Connectivity, Industrial Communication and Industrial Digitalization in order to continue on its growth path in the long term. "With these three objectives, we will achieve dynamic, future-oriented and sustainable growth by 2020. Thanks to good market prospects and a successful start to the 2018 financial year, we are confident that we will grow by more than eight percent in 2018 and close the year with sales of 800 million euros if the market continues to develop positively," comments Timmermann. kp