Gibotech is experiencing rapid growth

Dan S. Frandsen of Jern-Maskinindustrien has written a short article about how the Funen-based automation company—which has the industry’s third-largest revenue—has grown its workforce from 60 to 90 employees over the past year. And this growing organization offers a number of advantages on the automation path the company has chosen.

While other automation companies focus their expertise on standard cells or machines, Gibotech remains true to its roots—custom-developed automation solutions.

It’s all about getting it right the first time, because we’re paid the market rate for a project. Far too many people get it wrong one out of every three times, and the trick is to get it wrong only one out of every ten or twenty times—so the result isn’t what was expected.

Henrik Anker, CEO of Gibotech

He explains that the automation company keeps risks in check by doing extremely thorough preparatory work whenever they take on a project.

"We've analyzed it thoroughly, and we probably go a step further than some of our colleagues. Given our size, we also have more resources to devote to preliminary analysis and pricing, so that the financials add up," he says.

Instead of focusing on standardized solutions, Gibotech concentrates on operating in fewer industries. For example, the food industry, which is one of the company’s core areas. Here, Gibotech’s strategy is to maintain a broad presence, go in-depth, and offer solutions that are well-known within the segment.

"But we don't have to go very far up the supply chain before we see differences. Today it's food, tomorrow it's brickworks, and the day after tomorrow it's a plastics company," says Henrik Anker.

When the automation company considers standardization, it focuses on panel building or programming, so that the software platforms provide a framework that can be customized into a customer-specific solution.

Order Book ‍

The Odense-based company currently has about 15 open positions. The shortage has not yet hindered growth, but the CEO notes that the company spends a considerable amount of time on recruiting, retaining, and training employees.

- We also have our new STR company, which we run in partnership with the Sanovo Group. It’s a company we launched on October 1, and it has a staff of eight, says Henrik Anker.

He also expects significant growth in the number of employees in 2019, but he doesn’t know if the increase will be exactly 30 people, as it was this year.

- We’re looking forward to 2019 with great optimism, and things are looking really good. We have a very strong order backlog, and it’s fantastic to review budgets when you have a well-filled order book. There’s room to invest.