Robotics supplier Sepro Group has announced an 11 million euro ($13.2 million) expansion of its operations in France and the United States following four years of “record-setting” sales growth.
The group has announced plans to increase production capacity at its headquarters facility in La Roche-sur-Yon, Frace, and launch a new global training facility nearby.
The expansion in France will see the group's HQ and production facility increase from 13,000 square meters to nearly 20,000 square meters.
A key element of the expansion is the plan to separate robot manufacturing from robot integration workflow.
According to Sepro, this change, together with added space, will increase production capacity for Sepro 3-, 5-, and 6-axis robots from 3,000 to 5,000 units annually.
The project is scheduled to complete by next summer.
The facility's robot integration business units, where Sepro develops custom robotic automation cells, will expand by 50 percent, making room for up to 70 projects annually for clients in Europe.
The second phase of Sepro's expansion in France will involve relocating its training center from the current headquarters to a new 800-square-meter facility nearby.
The new center will include five training rooms with eight full-time trainers, located within a new campus that is being developed as a regional center of excellence for robotics and manufacturing by local authorities.
The center is set to open in summer 2018 and will have the capacity to train up to 1,500 participants annually, a 50 percent increase over existing enrollments.
In the United States, Sepro America LLC plans to expand its facility in Warrendale, Pa., and begin assembling robots in the fourth quarter of 2017.
“Adding assembly capabilities represents the next logical step in growth for the facility, which is already a hub for systems integration and the assembly of complex automation cells in North America,” Sepro said in a statement.
The expansion will help optimize delivery schedules in North America, while achieving savings in logistics and transport.
The investment will more than double the assembly/production area of the current 16,500-square-foot facility.
Sepro claims to be is the largest maker of robots in France. During the past four years, the company has more than doubled the number of robots sold, from 1,300 in 2012 to more than 2,700 in 2016.
With that growth, said Jean Michel Renaudeau, CEO Sepro Group, “We have reached the limits of our production capacity and we need to invest.”
