BARCELONA, Spain—The Venair Group is looking to boost its presence around the world in the silicone hose market, with particular emphasis on Europe and the Americas.
At its headquarters site in Barcelona, the hose firm is constructing a new and larger logistics center that will allow it to revamp its existing manufacturing facility there, according to Andreu Fernandez, Venair's strategic projects manager.
“We are finishing the construction of a new and larger logistic center that will allow us to optimize our operations in order to serve our 17 offices around the world much faster and more efficient,” he said.
The new center at the 60,000-sq.-ft. site will be equipped with state-of-the art equipment such as a robotic warehousing system.
In turn, that will allow Venair to revamp its existing manufacturing facilities by building a new Class VII clean room to increase its capacity to produce food/pharma and biomedical products, according to Fernandez.
He declined to disclose the investment at the Barcelona site, but did say that between 70 and 80 people are employed there. Besides Spain, the company has production in Vietnam.
“Twenty-five years ago Venair was created as an industrial silicone hose manufacturer, but we have been moving to the food/pharma and biomedical sectors, and currently around 40 percent of our sales come from these new markets,” he said. That share is expected to reach 50 percent by 2017.
He said the Spanish hose firm's growth strategy is focused on new sales offices. Last year, the company opened new offices in Philadelphia and San Francisco—it already had one in Miami—along with sites in Turkey and Brazil. It followed that with new offices this year in Mexico, Singapore and Beijing.
The new U.S. sites will help promote growth there, it said, while the Mexican office will team with the Brazil unit to give Venair a stronger presence in Latin America.
The office in Istanbul, Turkey, likewise, is seen as a country between Europe and Asia that plays a key role in maritime transport logistics, the firm said. Focus in coming years will be on emerging markets such as Indonesia, Colombia and Russia.