Phoenix rises in 2004

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Dec 7, 2004

At the PLC/IPC/Drives automation trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany, Phoenix Contact's Managing Director Roland Bent outlined his company's growth strategy.

At the PLC/IPC/Drives automation trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany, Phoenix Contact's Managing Director Roland Bent outlined his company's growth strategy.

He emphasised the company's leading role both in terms of technological innovation and market leadership.

Phoenix Contact's position is founded on international market coverage, the successful exploitation and expansion of the company's core competencies, and a strong focus on innovation.

When Phoenix Contact announced in late 2003 that it would concentrate on the Ethernet-based Profinet technology and establish migration paths between existing Interbus systems and the upcoming Profinet systems, this signified a major step toward a uniform communication standard.

This year, the company began to actively contribute to Profinet's role as the next international standard - developing, among other things, proprietary new software solutions for the Profinet protocol stack.

This software, which is fully compatible with the Profinet specifications, is already being used for the local Profinet controller ILC 350 and will soon also be used for a Profinet-Interbus coupler, which will act as a proxy to control the implementation of the "Integration" research team's specifications.

Both products will be ready for serial production by the start of 2005.

They emphasise the independent technology approach Phoenix Contact is pursuing with its Profinet solutions.

In Asian market, Phoenix Contact's control technology is gaining ground thanks to the introduction of Chinese-language versions of the control software PC Worx and the KW software technology on which it is based.

This is the first control software available in Chinese produced by a non-Chinese company.

As a specialist for industrial communication, Phoenix Contact has been focusing on the promotion of wireless industrial products for more than three years.

A co-operative venture started with the Canadian manufacturer Omnex in 2003 ensures a viable strategy for the company's wireless technology-based activities.

As well as this proprietary technology, Phoenix Contact has also been consistently pursuing standard Bluetooth and wireless LAN technologies.

To establish a Bluetooth-based product range, the company has entered into a co-operative venture with the Swedish company Connect Blue in 2004.

Phoenix Contact's strategic interest in the venture is secured by a 13% participation.

In terms of international market coverage, Bent reported healthy company activity in all significant international industrial markets.

Currently, Phoenix Contact is running 35 distribution and sales companies and is additionally working with a large number of agencies.

In 2004, international activities were again expanded.

In Russia, a fully company-owned subsidiary had already been established in Moscow.

This year, local sales offices were established in Russia's other main industrial centres.

For the development of new markets in Eastern Europe, fully owned subsidiaries were also established in Romania, the Ukraine and Lithuania in 2004.

To reinforce its core competencies in all development and production areas, Phoenix Contact continues to expand and upgrade its production sites: in the electronics plant in Bad Pyrmont, Germany, the production area is currently being extended by more than 10,000m2.

To facilitate further growth in its international markets through added local presence, Phoenix Contact will be commencing production in the new production halls of its sites in Nowy Tomysl, Poland, and Nanjing, China, this year.

Production capabilities for the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, site are also being expanded.

According to Bent, the company's sustainable growth is based on its capacity for innovation: in 2004, 30 new products and a product catalogue featuring 1600 items were released.

With these measures, the company's growth strategy was again implemented successfully in 2004.

Having already achieved a turnover of Eur 660 million in 2003, Phoenix Contact will cross the Eur 700 million threshold in 2004.