Fedon opens new facility in China
In a month business at the new Fedon facility, fully controlled by the parent company, will begin in China's Shen Zen industrial area.
'We will start with just over 100 employees, just enough to test efficiency', Group Chairman Callisto Fedon told Il Sole 24 Ore, 'but by January 2006 we aim to be fully operative with over one thousand employees. Without any doubt, the first objective is the recovery of competitiveness with respect to our main competitors, the Chinese, but the facility in that area will be the starting off point for opening up new markets, as well as being a strategic base for tackling the American area, thanks especially to the advantageous trade agreements between China and the Usa'.
With the new Chinese site, the Fedon Group will have eight production facilities (6 in Italy, 1 in Slovenia and 1 in Romania). 'We are constrained to chase after a market that has reduced the cost of our products by three and a half times in 15 years', Fedon explained. 'We are maintaining a leadership position, but we must adopt aggressive policies on all fronts. At the Italian facilities, our competitiveness derives from very high quality and, in particular, from our strong innovative thrust, with automated processes which we developed in house for all production stages. So much so that we set up an ad-hoc company within the group; Hawk is located in the Treviso area and has already created its own very dynamic market externally. We went to Slovenia when labor was not to be found here, and to Romania to combine price with competent basic know-how. But we are convinced that China represents the future for our production as it is only here that we can already count on a process that starts from the availability of raw materials and includes semi-finished goods and all types of sub-supplies'.
After a 2003 that closed with billings of almost 58 million euros and a return to profitability, Fedon aims at a slight improvement of the year-end figure, even though sales prices have continued to fall. 'Listing in France', Fedon added, 'has contributed strongly to opening up the group internationally and to administration that is more markedly managerial. Today we have market liquidity of a little more than 15%, but it is still an important stimulus'.
