NEWS n ZZZ HSODQ FR XN THE ELECTRICAL CONNECTORS giant Wago is aiming to boost sales of its automation products in the UK from around £4m at present to £20m by 2030. This is part of a wider plan to drive the company’s UK revenues from £43.4m last year to £75m by the end of the decade. Over the past seven years, Wago has achieved an average revenue growth of 16% a year in the UK, tripling the size of its business. The push into the automation sector is, in part, a response to its dominant position in the electrical connectors market where it claims to have an 87% share of the UK installer market, limiting its scope for further expansion. At present, connectors account for around 80% of Wago’s UK revenues, with its automation products making up 20%. In other countries, the company’s automation portfolio represents a bigger proportion of its sales, so UK and Ireland managing director, Darren Hodson, wants to boost automation sales here to around 40% of total revenues. “It’s going to take hard work to get there,” he admits, adding that the company’s relationship with panel-builders and systems integrators is currently not strong enough. Wago’s automation products include PLCs, edge PCs, I/O systems, HMIs, IIoT devices, industrial switches, sensor/actuator boxes, couplers and software, including Scada. Wago has brought in John Mackey, previously with Siemens Digital Industries, to be its head of automation and sales, and tasked him with spearheading the automation drive. He is hoping to “disrupt” the middle section of the automation market, currently occupied by suppliers such as Beckhoff, Omron, Mitsubishi, Weidmuller and Phoenix Contact. Mackey is targeting the food and beverage manufacturing sector, in particular. Other target markets are electrical microgrids and data centres. Rather than positioning automation as a large-scale transformation that requires businesses to start again from scratch, Wago is focusing on using its open and scalable technologies to work with existing systems, helping customers to install, connect, monitor and automate their facilities in stages. Wago’s support for open technologies such as Codesys and the ctrlX automation operating system (originally developed by Bosch Rexroth) will help it to link up with existing installations. “Wago brings together strong German engineering with an open automation philosophy which puts us in an excellent position to help businesses modernise without creating unnecessary complexity,” says Mackey. Wago currently employs around 90 people in the UK, operating from a purpose-built £25m headquarters in Rugby, opened last year. The 63,000ft2 (5,850m2) site contains offices, a warehouse holding £3m of stock, training and demo facilities, and a production area where it assembles items such as terminal rails and cable assemblies. Over the past decade, the company has sold more than a billion connectors in the UK. Wago’s plans to expand its UK operation come as its family-owned German parent company celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding. Wago currently employs around 9,000 people globally and last year generated revenues worth €1.34bn – an 8% increase on the previous year. The company has more than tripled in size over the past seven years, and has a portfolio of more than 25,000 products. Wago targets a five-fold rise in UK automation sales to hit £20m by 2030 Wago UK and Ireland MD, Darren Hodson: it’s going to take hard work
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