Lars Renström, president and CEO of Alfa Laval, made the comments at the firm’s Capital Markets Day in Denmark yesterday.
He also said the change from two selling divisions to three at the start of 2012, gave them a “larger, more transparent and focused” company.
Acquisition strategy
Talking about the acquisition strategy, he said: “Our highest priority is to add complementary products in the three core technologies.
“Four out of five recent acquisitions have added products that we can sell through our global/local sales organization.”
Renström added that the firm expects to find most targets among complementary products in mainly Western Europe and North America.
“The second dimension is to serve customers by acquiring complementary channels, like last year’s acquisition of a channel servicing HSS.
“The third dimension is strengthening our presence in certain countries, like the US, China and Korea.”
Renström highlighted energy, the environment and fast growing regions as the priorities for the division.
The firm offers heat exchangers, pumps, valves and automation, filling and packaging, seperation and filtration and tubes and fittings for the food, beverage and dairy sectors.
Process Technology highlights
The Process Technology Division, including food, has 46% of orders received for the year to date with total orders above 2011 levels.
Base business is on the same level and projects sales are above last year levels, said Alfa Laval.
Svante Karlsson, manager for the Process Technology Division, which involves food, dairy and beverage processing, gave an update on the development, describing current trends and activities.
Karlsson said: “Our increased sales are not only a result of a good business climate, but also due to new products being launched and also existing products being introduced into new areas such as transportation.”
He added how the energy-consuming refinery industry is a good fit for Alfa Laval’s efficient heat exchangers and concluded that structural changes like increased living standard, focus on energy savings, waste management and environmental demands are important for the division, contributing to growth.