Automation for sustainability and climate-neutral production
The Festo Group had a record year in 2021. Incoming orders were up 26% and sales were up around 18% on the previous year at 3.36 billion euros, around 18% higher than in the previous year.
Massive investments in the semiconductor/electronics industry, digitalisation, new mobility, the life tech and biotech/pharmaceutical industries as well as solid investment activity in the food industry are the basis for Festo's high growth with automation technology.
Climate-neutral by the end of 2023: Focus on energy efficiency and sustainable production
Automation is an important enabler for transforming industrial production in a climate-neutral way. "Festo will massively reduce its carbon footprint over the next two years. As a result, by the end of 2023, all our production and logistics locations worldwide, as well as the German sales locations and the company headquarters in Esslingen, will be CO2-neutral," explained Dr. Oliver Jung, Chairman of the Management Board.
Festo has aligned its sustainability strategy with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations which are relevant for the company.
Festo sees automation as the basis for efficiency increases in a sustainable industry, on its way to CO2-neutral production. With its products and solutions, the company will increasingly contribute to enabling resource-saving production and help establish a circular economy along the entire value chain, with the clear aim of reducing CO2 emissions.
Supply security and resilience
Supplying a growing world population with food, drinking water, pharmaceutical products, limited fossil and increasingly alternative energies, chemical products, building materials, fertilisers, semiconductors, and much more is one of the greatest challenges to be solved in the future.
Many high-wage countries have started to bring their production back home. Here, too, automation is the key to keeping prices at a stable level and making industries competitive and sustainable. All combined with the lowest possible carbon footprint from the automation component to the plant technology and the actual production process to the finished end product and its distribution and infrastructure.
"We see automation as an opportunity to conserve our planet's natural resources, protect the climate and supply a growing world population," said Dr. Oliver Jung.
Festo offers a broad portfolio for the manufacturing industry, e.g. specifically for the food and packaging, biotech pharmaceutical and LifeTech (medical technology and laboratory automation), electronics/semiconductor and automotive industries.
2022: Further on course for growth
There are growing uncertainties due to the pandemic, particularly in the Asian region, and the effects of the war in Ukraine. High energy, material and transport costs are burdening the business as well as the further shortage of raw materials and electronic components.
"We are currently establishing alternative supply chains in order to decouple ourselves as far as possible from critical markets, especially for energy-intensive materials. We are also increasing our inventories of core products in all regions," says Dr. Oliver Jung.
Festo has made its global production and logistics network even more robust. Overall, the parallelisation of production close to the markets "in the region for the region" is also becoming increasingly important in terms of sustainability and short transport routes.
"2022 will be another very challenging year – both from a human and an economic perspective. Our order books are well filled, but the further development of the pandemic and the situation in the war and crisis zones as well as the supply chain are difficult to predict. Overall, we expect further growth and are consistently investing in innovation, digitalisation and sustainability." explained Dr. Oliver Jung.