The Engel Group generated a global turnover of 1.25 billion euros during the financial year 2015-2016, and its operations continue to expand. These being the figures that began the pre-K press conference that took place on June 6 at the group’s headquarters in Schwertberg, in Austria.

The Engel management pointed out that its order book is full for the financial year 2016-2017, with investments of approximately 100 million euros envisaged for the expansion of the factory premises and production capacity. The investments being mainly concentrated within Austria.

“In the period 2015-2016 we have succeeded in consolidating our market position in Europe as well as increasing our market share in Asia and America.” He also highlighted the fact that “the European market, and particularly that of Germany, continues to be the main generator of innovation.” stated Christoph Steger, the CSO of Engel.

“The same high quality standards are applied in all our factories and our staff is highly qualified at an international level”, commented the CEO Peter Neumann, not without emotion in view of the fact that he addressed the pre-K press conference for the last time, as he is due to retire at the end of 2016.

At international level, Asia remains the most buoyant market for Engel, featuring high-tech demand. In fact, Neumann reminded those present that the company celebrated its 30 years of presence on the Asian continent during the recent Chinaplas fair, and it will be opening its sixth branch in the region by the end of 2016.

While the booming car industry in the American continent, is having positive repercussions on the plastics industry, and North America, after Asia is in fact once of the most dynamic world markets, and the Austrian company is determined to exploit this potential to the full.

While as regards Europe, Germany remains one of the most profitable markets for Engel, thanks to the operations of its branches in Nuremberg, Hannover, Hagen and Stuttgart, which continue to be highly positive. The newest of the four German branches, the Engel Deutschland Technologieforum Stuttgart, has more than doubled its staff since opening in 2013. Italy also continues to be profitable thanks to a solid domestic market.

An investment of about 100 million euros is due to be made in the coming months, with the purpose of boosting all the group factories worldwide, starting from the Schwertberg plant. Together with the expansion of the main headquarters, the Austrian factory of St. Valentin, dedicated to large sized machines, is due to be enlarged with a new production area. The compound technology and processing centre will also be equipped with new production areas and infrastructure.

The factory in Kaplice (Czech Republic), dedicated to the production of machine components will be doubled in size by the autumn of 2017, while investments in Asia will be mainly be channelled towards the Shanghai branch, with the addition of new assembly departments, offices and training workshop areas.

In terms of application, the car, packaging, medical, teletronics and technical moulding sectors once again are the main areas which appear to have a significant capacity for further growth. Thereby further prompting the technological evolution of the company, that will be attending the K2016 with the slogan “Be the first”, which aims to highlight its leading position amongst injection moulding system and machinery manufacturers. In Düsseldorf, for example its will be presenting the DecoJet technology: a new IMD (In Mould Decoration) concept, which has been developed for the economical production of car interior components, the surface features of which, such as colour, finish, durability and touch, can be achieved using film. Samples of large car doors panels will be produced at the fair in a special injection moulding cell based on a 5160/1000 duo press.