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Bosch targets 40% rise in sales revenue PDF Print E-mail

By Sharidan M. Ali, The Star

August 18, 2010

 

PETALING JAYA: Robert Bosch Malaysia Sdn Bhd, a diversified technology-based company, forecast to record between 30% and 40% increase in sales revenue this year as all of its business divisions showed encouraging sales performance for the first six months of 2010.

Its managing director Cem Peksaglam said Bosch Malaysia had recorded a 40% year-on-year sales growth for the first six months of this year.

“This will make up for the loss of sales by 21% to a total of RM396mil last year.

cem peksaglam

Cem Peksaglam: ‘Last year was undoubtedly a very difficult year for the region especially Malaysia, but recovery has been fast so far.’

“Last year was undoubtedly a very difficult year for the region especially Malaysia, but recovery has been fast so far,” he told reporters after a briefing on its financial performance in 2009 yesterday.

The company is currently active in the automotive after-market, security systems, power tools, drive and control and packaging technology businesses.

Globally, the Bosch Group’s sales slid by 15% to 38.2 billion euros last year against 2008.

The group also slipped into the red last year with a loss of 1.2 billion euros.

This was the first time the group recorded a loss since 1945.

But Peksaglam, who is also the president and managing director of Robert Bosch (SEA) Pte Ltd, said with the economic recovery this year, the group was now making up for much of loss of sales last year.

“Globally, sales were up by 25% in the first quarter of this year and sales are expected to grow by more than 10% for the whole of this year to 42 billion euros.

“Although the sales were generally down last year, for the first time, Asia Pacific (Apac) contributed about 20% of the group’s revenue in 2009, making it the second most important region in terms of sales after Europe.

“Apac sales are expected to climb to 30% of the group’s total sales by 2015,” he said.

Going forward for its operation in Malaysia and the region, Peksaglam said Bosch aimed to establish a strong presence in the car infotainment segment with a wide range of multimedia systems customised for different cars.

These all-in-one car multimedia devices include applications such as dual view touch screen display, bluetooth connectivity interfaces for iPhone, iPod, MP3, dvd, cd players, television, global positioning system (GPS) and an ‘eco-mode’ that offers fuel-efficient route guidance.

“Bosch car multimedia division plant in Penang has been producing this since April and by 2013, 70% of the plant’s production will primarily be car infotainment systems,” he said.

Peksaglam said Bosch had set up a new research and development (R&D) company in Penang this month to meet the growing demand for car infotainment systems in tandem with the recovery of the international automotive market.

He, however, did not reveal the investment value of the new R&D company.