Sepro projecting record sales in 2016

France-based automation supplier Sepro Group is on track toward its fourth record sales year in a row, with North America getting the lion’s share of the credit.

Speaking at a June 29 K 2016 press preview presented by Messe Dusseldorf, Sepro Group CEO Jean-Michel Renaudeau projected global turnover will exceed 100 million euros for the first time in the company’s history. Unit sales (robots and sprue pickers) are expected to surpass 2,500.

The U.S. and Canada represent 21% of the Sepro market – the company’s largest market segment, Renaudeau said. “The U.S. has been our largest single market since the global recession of 2008-2009,” he explained. Renaudeau also credited Canada for helping boost Sepro’s sales this year. “We are already seeing the recognition from Canadian customers for our having opened Sepro Canada in January 2016,” he said.

Located in Montreal, Sepro Canada is headed by national sales manager Firaz Sharaf, a 20-year manufacturing industry veteran.

“Most people expect that the industry of the future – some call it Industry 4.0 – will be built on openness,” Renaudeau said. “We embrace that idea and we believe it has been what has fueled our recent successes. We have been open to new technologies, whether they are developed by Sepro engineers or by partner companies like Staübli, Machines Pagès and Yaskawa Motoman. We have made connections with injection molders and machine manufacturers through agile integration, and we are working with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University on the next generation robot controls. In all of this, we see a future that is wide open to innovation, integration and collaboration that will benefit not only Sepro, but the entire industry.”

Founded in 1973, Sepro created the first three of its subsidiaries in 1990: Sepro Germany, Sepro United Kingdom, and Sepro Spain. Sepro America was established in 2007 and is located in Warrendale, Pa., just north of Pittsburgh. Other daughter companies are located in Benelux, Mexico, Brazil, and China.