Phoenix Contact: potentials of growth after the crisis

This is a surplus of more than EUR 300 million over 2009 and an increase of around seven percent over 2008, the year before the crisis. For 2011, all indicators point to further growth, although it will be moderate at around ten percent. As of today, our decision to retain all staff during the crisis has proved to be the right move. The increase in orders was greeted by a highly motivated staff, ready to return from a sometimes three-day week to full-time hours at short notice, even with overtime and weekend hours. During the first half of the year, most of the contracts for temporary workers were reinstated. Compared to 2009, the number of salaried employees at our German sites increased by 800. Compared to 2008, the year before the crisis, the core workforce will have increased by 400 employees by the end of this year. Important investment projects were continued or initiated even during the crisis year of 2009. The Lüdenscheid plant expanded its production surface by 14,000 square meters. The plant in Nowy Tomyśl, Poland, expanded by 10'000 square meters. In 2009 Phoenix Contact completed the new 20'000 square-meter production hall for Device Connection Technology in Blomberg, which became fully operational this year. It provides space for new production systems to handle the increase in orders, which have grown significantly in this area. In October of this year, we opened a major technology and customer center in Shanghai that is about 1'500 square meters in size. This center houses the operations and support office for the region and also an application and sales center specifically focused on the solutions business in the booming infrastructure market in China. It is also home to the Chinese branch of Phoenix Contact’s subsidiary KW-Software. The facilities include an exhibition space and training rooms. Sales presence, application expertise, and technology have been brought together under one roof in Shanghai to serve our Chinese customers. In the US in the high-tech city of Ann Arbor, in direct proximity to the automotive capital Detroit, Phoenix Contact purchased a building with 2'500 square meters of floor space. A customer and technology center will be opened here soon.