APC 2002 Annual Report Download - page 13

customers’ related needs in four core markets: residential,
buildings, industry and energy and infrastructure.
Residential, commercial and industrial buildings are our
biggest market, representing some 51% of sales in 2001 and
2002. This market covers our entire lineup for electrical
distribution, management and optimization, as well as
networks for transmitting data in homes, apartment buildings,
offices, hotels, hospitals, shopping centers, sports and cultural
centers and industrial facilities. Renovation and retrofitting
account for around 50% of demand. In 2002, products and
equipment for commercial and industrial buildings represented
around 42% of total sales, versus 9% for residential buildings.
The Company offers building owners, contractors, systems
integrators, electricians, panelbuilders and distributors a broad
range of products and services covering all aspects of
electrical distribution, including low voltage equipment, medium
voltage distribution equipment, building management and
safety systems, control, monitoring and automation equipment,
and wiring and connection systems for Voice-Data-Image (VDI)
technology. Our customers work exclusively or primarily in
local markets.
Our most attractive growth opportunities lie in home renovation
in Europe and the United States and in large complexes in
Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and other developing
economies. Commercial buildings (notably heating, air
conditioning and lighting systems), building control and related
services are another growth avenue.
Industry, our second-largest market, accounted for around
32% of sales in 2001 and 2002. We offer companies in a large
number of sectors a wide range of products, equipment and
services to distribute and manage electricity, control and
monitor machines, automate industrial processes, and
supervise and manage industrial sites and their consumption.
Our main customers are large multinational manufacturers,
systems integrators, OEMs, small businesses, electricians,
panelbuilders and distributors.
Our principle growth levers are global accounts and OEMs,
notably in the food and beverage, pharmaceuticals,
automobile, semi-conductor and packaging industries.
These customers offer strong potential for new generations
of our products and services.Strengthening partnership ties
with our main customers is a priority objective in this market.
With this in mind, we have created application centers
to design and develop new products with OEMs and their
customers. In addition, we plan to set up skills centers
to provide high-value added support to help enhance the
performance of customers who use our products and
equipment. We are convinced that this collaborative
approach will become a major growth driver.
The energy and infrastructure market accounted for around
17% of sales in 2002 and 2001. Infrastructure covers all of
our products, equipment and services for communication, air,
rail, road and maritime transportation, water, gas and oil
transport and water and wastewater treatment. A number of
products, such as surveillance cameras, leverage web
technologies to identify failures wherever uninterrupted service
and safety are a priority. We also offer Transparent Ready™
solutions that allow products to communicate with each other
and be operated remotely, thereby improving infrastructure
performance, competitiveness and profitability. Our customers
are infrastructure operators, engineering firms, systems
integrators, panelbuilders, OEMs and contractors.
The energy market covers the generation, transmission and
distribution of electricity. Schneider Electric serves power
companies, contractors, systems integrators, OEMs
and panelbuilders with a lineup that integrates new web
technologies and network innovations designed to optimize
the quality and cost of each distributed kilowatt hour.
Growth in the energy market should be driven by deregulation
of the electricity and gas markets, the development of
renewables and rising demand for products and services that
improve electrical distribution performance and cost. In
addition, distributed generation, supported by new
technologies such as fuel cells and the weakening of
centralized grids (notably in North America), should continue to
enjoy very strong growth. To get the most out of this situation,
we offer comprehensive solutions by leveraging our leadership
in medium and low voltage, our automation lineup and our
partnership with VA Tech GmbH in high voltage transmission.
The global infrastructure market should continue to expand,
especially with rising demand for voice and data transmission
and Internet-related infrastructure. Growth will also be
supported by stepped-up privatization of public infrastructure
and the increasing use of new information and communication
technologies, which open up new markets such as systems
operation and maintenance, metering and remote payment.
Business Presentation
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