GERMANY • The specialist for system solutions and automation technology on running webs reported a turnover of approx. 160 million EUR in 2015. As in the previous year, this represents growth of 10%. Thanks to these figures, the company remains on course for the goal it has set for itself: “E+L 200”, i.e. reaching the EUR 200 million mark in 2022. This was the résumé of the management board at the company’s annual conference, which took place on 22 January in Augsburg.
While the subsidiaries in Europe, India and in particular in the USA enjoyed a year of dynamic growth, Erhardt+Leimer felt the decreasing dynamism of the economy in China. However, the company expects that opening the new plant in Hangzhou, China this March will increase growth rates again, as local manufacturing and a strong sales presence will improve the competitive position significantly.
In the recent years, Erhardt+Leimer has invested tens of millions, largely financed from its own funds. The investments went towards new factories and machines around the world, to the expansion of globally harmonized IT infrastructure and the acquisition of suitable companies to expand the company’s portfolio. Significant investments were also made into manpower: after the crisis in 2009, Erhardt+Leimer workforce has grown on average by approx. 100 employees worldwide per annum, with the group now employing a staff of 1500 worldwide.
Erhardt+Leimer sees considerable growth potential with its solutions and products due to digitalization of the economy. The company’s high-tech sensors and controllers are already network-capable and can thus be integrated in Industry 4.0 systems. According to Production Director Schotter, Erhardt + Leimer is not focusing on the major cyber-physical processes where the components involved communicate with one another autonomously via the Internet and operate “intelligently”. Instead, it is concentrating on consistent application of lean production methods, partially automated digital processes and avoidance of media disruptions, i.e. standardized information structures between systems.