APC 1998 Annual Report Download - page 40

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Schneider Electric
in Europe
Highlights
Area sales
Workforce
A market providing good growth
Schneider Electric’s European Division covers all of western Europe,
including France, as well as eastern Europe. It employs 35,000 people
in more than 25 countries and comprises 84 production facilities
and 2,700 sales outlets. Europe is a particularly demanding market; to keep
sales growing, providers need to offer extremely high-performance solutions.
Sales in this mature market rose 6.2% in 1998, which is a good performance.
T his overall figure does, however, conceal some fairly wide regional disparities.
T he Italian, UK, and German markets were stable, whereas Spain
and Portugal gained 19% and central Europe 32%.
Harmonizing IT
To accelerate communication and optimize costs, we have
launched a large-scale program to harmonize all our internal
information systems. In Spain, Italy, Hungary, the United
Kingdom and Scandinavia this has meant the installation
of a fully integrated system.
Upgrading production facilities
Our European plant renovation program will be completed
in 2000. In the last quarter of 1999, the new unit in Stezzano
(Italy) will replace the Bergamo plant, with twice the capacity.
And, in a few months, we will have finished the total
renovation of our circuit breaker manufacturing facility
in Bulgaria. A new plant for medium voltage products
has opened in Leeds (UK), and the Pisek facility
in the Czech Republic is now operational.
More flexible logistics
Schneider Electric has re-engineered its entire European
logistics organization in order to respond more swiftly
to changing markets, reduce inventories, and cut operating
costs. The objective is to be able to deliver in 48 hours
to almost all European countries starting in 1999.
Acquisitions
Acquisitions provided us with many opportunities to enhance
our core product ranges in 1998. Examples include Schyller,
an Italian manufacturer of industrial sockets in the 16-125 A
range. We are pursuing this strategy in 1999, as can be seen
in the acquisition under way of Lexel, which will extend our
final low voltage product lineup.
FF
24.4
billion
€
3.7
billion
Of which in France
FF
9.2
billion
€
3.7
billion
35,000
employees
of which France 22,000
50%
of which
France
19%
Area sales
as a % of total