© ESD Center
Electronics Production |
ESD-Center aims to conquer the Baltics
After 15 years of working the Baltic market, ESD-center, a Swedish supplier to the electronics industry, established its first office in Pärnu, Estonia in April of 2019.
Just six months after the establishing its local presence, ESD-centerhad to increase its footprint further by expanding the warehouse. CEO Stefan Sjökvist says that there is no doubt that the Baltics is an excellent spot for significant growth.
For the past five years, ESD-center has expanded its business through several company acquisitions, including Norwegian company Robotech and Swedish Kretsteknik Nordic. The company has also made numerous deliveries of production equipment to EMS providers. All of the events are parts of a greater growth phase.
CEO, Stefan Sjökvist, tells Evertiq that the expansion accelerated as soon as they sealed the deal with Kretskort Nordic.
“That was a big decision, and led to a long-term investment- and development strategy.”
The core business of ESD-Center is to provide companies with static control, process materials, and production equipment, such as units for selective soldering, automated optical inspection and coating.
Since the beginning of 2019, the company has delivered and installed about 15 units units, several to manufacturing facilities in Estonia, owned by Swedish EMS providers such as LEAB and Note.
© ESD-Center
“For the Estonian market, there are a lot of prospects in Tallinn, including a number of larger customers in Pärnu, where Note and Scanfil have established their respective units. Geographically, Pärnu brings us closer to the entire Baltic region,” Stefan Sjökvist says when explaining the reason behind setting up the company’s operations in Pärnu.
From the new office in Pärnu, ESD-Center are now able to supply, serve and support customers in all three Baltic countries. In addition to shorter delivery times and increased flexibility, the transport cost will be significant lower compared to shipping from its base in Sweden.
According to Stefan, the response from the customers in the Baltic countries has been overwhelming.
“Not only from our established customers, but also from new clients, who have more or less been waiting for us to establish a physical presence in the region.”
And as stated earlier, roughly six months later, the company faced the need to expand the warehouse further, adding 300 square metres of additional space, something that in many ways took the company by surprise.
“We knew that there were opportunities to expand, but that we would be expanding as early as August was not in our pipeline. So, we took the decision at end of June, and soon after that we began tearing down the walls.”
With this new expansion of its already new office and warehouse space, the company basically doubled its available space.
“It’s enough, for now, but we are not shying away from the idea of adding additional space in the future,” Stefan says.
The company has previously been running everything, including maintenance at their Estonian site from Malmö, Sweden. The plan now however, is to hire a local technician some time this year, or during the first quarter of the next year, to quickly respond to any issues that could occurr.
“A big challenge is the virtually non-existing unemployment rate in the Baltics, which makes the recruitment process pretty difficult for us – as well as for the entire industry – to find suitable people,” says Stefan and adds; “But if waiting a few extra months is what it takes to find the right person, then that’s what we are going to do.”
© ESD-Center
“For the Estonian market, there are a lot of prospects in Tallinn, including a number of larger customers in Pärnu, where Note and Scanfil have established their respective units. Geographically, Pärnu brings us closer to the entire Baltic region,” Stefan Sjökvist says when explaining the reason behind setting up the company’s operations in Pärnu.
From the new office in Pärnu, ESD-Center are now able to supply, serve and support customers in all three Baltic countries. In addition to shorter delivery times and increased flexibility, the transport cost will be significant lower compared to shipping from its base in Sweden.
According to Stefan, the response from the customers in the Baltic countries has been overwhelming.
“Not only from our established customers, but also from new clients, who have more or less been waiting for us to establish a physical presence in the region.”
And as stated earlier, roughly six months later, the company faced the need to expand the warehouse further, adding 300 square metres of additional space, something that in many ways took the company by surprise.
“We knew that there were opportunities to expand, but that we would be expanding as early as August was not in our pipeline. So, we took the decision at end of June, and soon after that we began tearing down the walls.”
With this new expansion of its already new office and warehouse space, the company basically doubled its available space.
“It’s enough, for now, but we are not shying away from the idea of adding additional space in the future,” Stefan says.
The company has previously been running everything, including maintenance at their Estonian site from Malmö, Sweden. The plan now however, is to hire a local technician some time this year, or during the first quarter of the next year, to quickly respond to any issues that could occurr.
“A big challenge is the virtually non-existing unemployment rate in the Baltics, which makes the recruitment process pretty difficult for us – as well as for the entire industry – to find suitable people,” says Stefan and adds; “But if waiting a few extra months is what it takes to find the right person, then that’s what we are going to do.”
