New Festo Canada CEO expects continued strong growth

Sales for Festo Canada have grown at an annual rate of almost 10 per cent during the past five years. The company’s new president and CEO, Roger Hallett, says the new five-year plan is targeting similar annual growth, primarily through a combination of market share gains, the ongoing expansion of Festo’s electric automation portfolio, new smart factory solutions and continued innovation in pneumatics. 

Fueling growth

Hallett expects several Festo global initiatives to help fuel growth in Canada. These include the smart factory automation solutions that will flow from its intensive Industry 4.0 R&D focus. In addition, Festo’s new configuration tool for its electric handling systems, which will allow customers to design the optimal Festo handling solution for their application in as little as 20 minutes, will also help drive growth in Canada. Plus, the company’s recent opening of new advanced manufacturing and logistics facilities in Germany and Ohio are expected to shorten delivery timelines for many Canadian orders.

For Canada, in particular, Festo is ramping up its focus on process automation solutions and working with Canadian machine builders to develop custom handling solutions. The company will work with customers, engineer to engineer, to turn the right components into handling solutions that it will assemble at its facility in Mississauga. 

“That will be something different in the next few years than you’ve seen from us before,” says Hallett. “We don’t build machines, we don’t compete with OEMs, but they can outsource part of the handling function to us, making us, in effect, their handling specialist, then take the solution we develop and assemble, and integrate it into their project.” 

Supporting Canadian manufacturers

Indeed, Festo’s growth is on target to help support the growth of the country’s manufacturing industry. The company will continue to support new collaborations between industry and academia to facilitate the uptake of advanced manufacturing concepts by Canadian manufacturers.

To learn more, contact Festo Canada.

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