Innovative products and an advanced digitally-enabled business model are credited with putting FRABA in the black in 2020.
The global FRABA Group – whose POSITAL brand is a supplier of position sensor and energy harvesting technology – resisted the headwinds from the spread of the corona virus and closed its 2020 financial year ending December 31 with three percent overall growth.
“The results have been gratifying – even if we fell short of the double-digit growth we had targeted pre-pandemic”, says Christian Leeser, majority shareholder and CEO of FRABA.
Worldwide sales were almost 40 million euros, while staff remained constant, with 230 employees at locations in Europe, Asia and North America. Profitability was also up, thanks in part to savings from lower travel costs.
In a year marked by COVID, POSITAL’s stable development is largely attributed to a broad portfolio of sensor products used in crisis-resistant industries such as medical equipment, pharmaceuticals manufacture, food industries, and logistics. Importantly, supply chains held and the company’s data-driven production process – based on the concepts of ‘mass customization’ and ‘lot size 1’ – ran without interruption.
“A huge plus was that with the company system we established years ago – featuring digitally controlled production, a flat hierarchy, an ‘open book policy’ for information sharing, and flexible work arrangements with a high proportion of home offices – meant that we could quickly pivot to the ‘new normal’ of virtual workplaces,” says Leeser.
FRABA’s confidence in the future is highlighted by several initiatives set to launch in 2021. A new business unit, code-named CREDEMUS, will provide mid-sized manufacturing companies with access to FRABA’s cloud-based production and order fulfilment platform. Services will include the implementation of FRABA’s production management software and consulting support.
A second initiative will promote the wider use of Wiegand technology.
“There is a lot to suggest that 2021 will be a strong and dynamic year,” says Leeser enthusiastically. With strong demand already evident in Q1 2021, the FRABA CEO is optimistic: “If material bottlenecks don’t spoil our plans, we should be back to double digit growth in 2021.”
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