Yaskawa - one of the world's largest players in the industrial robot sector with more than 380,000 installed units - has set itself the goal of becoming one of the leading manufacturers of industrial robots in Europe in the medium term. To this end, a new robot production facility and a new European robotics development center are now being built in Slovenia. The investment volume is around 25 million euros. In addition, around 200 new jobs are to be created at Yaskawa and others at the European suppliers. The Robotics Division currently employs around 960 people across Europe, almost a third of them in Germany. In total, Yaskawa employs around 350 development and application engineers in Europe.

Bruno Schnekenburger, President of the Robotics Division of Yaskawa Europe, said on the occasion of the opening: "The new production and development capacities enable us to offer our customers in Europe the shortest delivery times and extended possibilities for customer-specific robotics solutions. With the expanded regional development capacities, we are moving even closer to European market and technology trends."

Three further major projects

In addition to the new robot plant, Yaskawa is currently working on three other major projects: More than 10,000 square meters of production and office space are being built in Nantes, France. In Torsås, Sweden, a new factory hall and new office workplaces are being built. These new buildings are also scheduled for completion at the end of 2018. By contrast, the extension to the European headquarters for Robotics in Allershausen, Germany, with 4,000 square meters of production and storage space and 1,200 square meters of office space, is already well advanced and will be ready for occupation in January 2018.

These investments are part of the Group's European initiative, as presented by Hiroshi Ogasawara, President and CEO of Yaskawa Electric, and Manfred Stern, Corporate Vice President Yaskawa Electric and CEO of Yaskawa Europe, at a press conference in Frankfurt at the end of last year. In addition to the expansion of the infrastructure, the strategy also includes the strengthening of development and application engineering as well as acquisitions to strengthen the 'Energy' and 'Marine' sectors.