ABB is UK’s leading supplier of new robots say market figures from BARA

Citation

(2012), "ABB is UK’s leading supplier of new robots say market figures from BARA", Industrial Robot, Vol. 39 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2012.04939daa.004

ABB is UK’s leading supplier of new robots say market figures from BARA

Article Type: News From: Industrial Robot: An International Journal, Volume 39, Issue 4

ABB has captured over 30 per cent share of the UK market for industrial robots in the first three months of 2010, according to results available from the British Automation and Robot Association (BARA).

The leading market share continues from that achieved in 2009 when ABB took 36 per cent across the entire year. ABB says that the figure is significant as it is not a result of any spike created through one major project. Within ABB, only one other country sold more robots in 2009 than 2008, an encouraging sign of the much publicised green shoots of recovery are showing in UK manufacturing, and that manufacturers are seeing the benefits of automation in building long term competitiveness.

If we take into account our automotive business this year then our market share jumps to 50 per cent, says Nigel Platt, ABB’s UK Sales and Marketing Manager for Robotics. “I believe that robotic sales in 2010 will continue going from strength-to-strength and I predict another year of significant growth”. With the overall decline of the UK automotive industry, following the withdrawal of some key brands, and the slow investment, in the last five years, from the remaining manufacturers, ABB’s growth is even more remarkable.

In the last five years ABB has created a channel partner network comprising independent companies focused on niche markets including machine tending, materials handling, and picking, packing and palletising applications. The channel partners comprise system integrators and a smaller number of OEM machine builders. Some 80 per cent of these partner sales were to the food and beverage sector.