It’s now 15 years since Elcoteq, the Finish EMS company has been established, grown from an assembly plant in Lohja with 170 employees into a global manufacturing group with some 18,000 employees. This Lohja fab with a staff of approximately 400 people have had a significant role in the development of the entire group, and it is still the site of the HQs. Elcoteq’s manufacturing plant in Lohja can now celebrate ten years of operation after a complete refurbishment. Re-founded in 1995, the plant has since played a major role in Elcoteq’s business development. Now, the plant focuses on new product introduction (NPI) services and the manufacture of communications network equipment. The company’s history is closely associated with the city of Lohja, which is still the company’s official domicile. The roots of Elcoteq were set up as part of Lohja Corporation in 1984, operating at a single site in this city in the south of Suomi (Finland) near Helsinki. Elcoteq has been an independent company since 1991 when the three executives Antti Piippo, Henry Sjöman and Jorma Vanhanen bought out the electronics business of Metra Corporation (former Lohja Corporation). The first years of the 90s saw rapid expansion abroad, first to Tallinn in Estonia in 1992. At the same time, the operation in Lohja needed more manufacturing capacity, etc. Therefore, it was completely refurbished and re-established in 1995.
In total, Elcoteq operates on four continents in 15 countries and employs about some 18,000 people. Its consolidated net sales for 2004 totaled euro 2.953bn. The net sales in the first half-year rose 46% to 1,792.4bn compared to January-June 2004 (1,228.5). The operating income was 25.4m (euro 17.2m). Of the entire workforce about only 1000 are in Finland. The geographical distribution of the staff was as follows: Europe some 9,700, Asia-Pacific 5,200 and Americas 3,100. The main product areas are terminals (81%) and communications network equipment (19%). The business units within Ericsson and Nokia accounted for altogether 68% of Elcoteq’s second-quarter net sales. These figures do not include business activities with Sony Ericsson.
The EMS company’s geographical main business areas are Europe (56%), Asia-Pacific (23%) and Americas (21%). Net sales in the second quarter showed clear growth in all geographical areas, Europe rose 40% to euro 550.9m; Asia-Pacific increased 65% to 226.6m; and the Americas grew 83% totaling euro 204.5m. Just recently, the group set up an office in Budapest/Hungary, being the office for the management of the geographical area Europe. This office close to the Central European market is part of the group’s internalization strategy, one aim to bring operations as close as possible to the markets and to the own fabs. The company expects that for the full year 2005 its net sales will increase and its operating income from continuing operations will improve clearly compared to last year.
www.elcoteq.com
EPP EUROPE 404
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