Fair Friend Aims for World's No. 1 Producer of Machine Tools

Taipei, March 2, 2011 (CENS)--Fair Friend Group, Taiwan's leading manufacturer of machine tools, recently said it aims to score NT$100 billion in sales in 2018, becoming the world's largest machine-tool conglomerate in terms of sales value.

The group is the first Taiwan-based machine-tool manufacturer to see annual sales break the NT$10 billion mark, which was registered in 2008. Despite the impact of the global financial crisis in 2008, the group has seen continued growth in sales over the past three years. With annual sales reaching NT$21.2 billion in 2010, the group anticipated it would be able to garner more than NT$30 billion in 2011 sales.

Group chairman Jimmy Chu said his group currently has 57 subsidiaries and its subsidiary in Hangzhou of Zhejiang province, China received orders for 621 machine tools in January alone. The Hangzhou subsidiary saw sales amount to 287 renminbi in sales in January, up 24% year-on-year.

At present, Fair Friend is having talks with a machine-tool manufacturer for acquisition. It also plans to set up production facilities in India and South Korea or even acquire machine-tool factories there.

Chu noted his group will have great chance to challenge 13,000 units of machine tools worldwide, becoming the world's largest machine-tool group, this year. But the group's ultimate goal is to score NT$100 billion in annual sales in 2018 to beat out the world's top-two machine-tool groups, including Mazak of Japan and DMG of Germany. In terms of sales value, Fair Friend ranked 11th in the world's machine-tool stage last year.

Chu optimistically said his group has launched production and set up distribution channels in China for years. China market has become the group's power engine in sales growth. He estimated the group's annual sales will reach 11 billion renminbi in 2012, accounting for 65% of its total sales.

In addition to the rapid growth in China operations, Fair Friend has aimed to garner at least 30% annual sales growth for its factories in Taiwan, Italy and the U.S. in the next nine years.