Company Profile

Company Overview

Presenting the Festo Group

Festo is a leading world-wide supplier of automation technology. As a globally-oriented and independent family company with its headquarters in Esslingen, Germany, it has become the performance leader in its industry over the last 50 years, thanks to its innovations and problem-solving competence in all aspects of pneumatics as well as its unique range of industrial training and education programs. Today, the company provides pneumatic and electric drive technology for over 300,000 customers in 200 industries world-wide both for factory and process automation as well as cutting-edge training solutions. The Festo Group achieved sales revenues € 2,1 billion in its fiscal year 2011 and with 15,500 employees is represented world-wide in 250 locations.

Motion with air – Festo’s core competence

Festo’s trademarks are its innovations to maximise customer productivity, its global presence and its close customer partnerships. Its success is based on the simplest drive principle in the world: air. Pneumatics – using compressed air or vacuum – has become a key technology in automation and is Festo’s core competence.

The company offers over 30,000 automation products, which can be tailored to specific customer needs in a variety of modular programs. Festo’s basic product range comprises pneumatic and electrical drives, valves, valve terminals, installation-saving connection technology, handling and assembly technology, air preparation equipment, fittings, vacuum technology, position and quality monitoring, sensors and control technology, as well as a comprehensive range of educational and training products.

Innovative variety for the world of automation

Furthermore, Festo offers ready-to-install subsystems and tailor-made industry-specific solutions, for example for the automobile, electronics, food and packaging, biotech/pharma and process industries, as well as specialised solutions for regional markets and individual customers. Whether for welding car bodies, producing cellphones or bottling baby food: the solutions have to be reliable, flexible and fast.

Festo products deliberately cover a broad spectrum, ranging from individual components through to sub-assemblies and right up to complete systems. Pre-defined standard products and customised solutions offer the ideal mix with the best price/performance ratio.

With a complete range of services, Festo supports its customers throughout the entire value-creation chain – providing everything from detailed advice, help with the selection of the optimum products and systems and fast installation using the “plug and work” principle through to training and on-site servicing.

59 national Festo companies around the world with 250 regional offices in 176 countries ensure that Festo’s advice, service, product delivery and reliability precisely meet customer needs in all global economic regions. Today, more than 300,000 industrial customers world-wide rely on Festo’s problem-solving competence.

New products offer competitive advantage and stimulate demand

A key factor for this success, was the company’s unswerving dedication to satisfying customer needs with new products and services. Around 100 new products launched every year and some 2,900 patents world-wide are a clear indication of the company’s innovative strength. Festo invests 9 % of its sales in Germany in basic research and development of new products and processes. Its new approach to product development, using bionics and biomechatronics within the framework of the Bionic Learning Network, represents a true first in the field of automation technology. 2010 Festo’s Bionic Handling Assistant won the “Deutscher Zukunftspreis” (German Futures Award), one of the most prestigious scientific prizes world-wide.

Self-learning company

Approximately half of Festo’s 15,500 employees work outside Germany. Some 3,500 employees are responsible for helping customers on site. Education and training plays a major role at Festo – the company offers vocational training in 12 technical and commercial professions as well as 7 degree courses of the “Duale Hochschule DH” (University of Cooperative Education). All employees are encouraged to take advantage of the wide range of training opportunities which Festo offers: international qualifications, a trainee program for industry novices and the company’s own Festo Academy.
Wide range of training services tailored to industry needs

Festo has developed into a performance leader in the field of industrial training services. The company offers a comprehensive range of learning systems for industrial training and education – from seminars, training and consulting in 26 languages to e-learning and complete turnkey learning centers. The segment also includes Festo’s “Learning Network” with its own compact masters courses and industrial training service center – tailored to the needs of facilities in the Saarland region. Some 42,000 customers world-wide take part in Festo’s Didactic Seminars or are educated at the company’s own training facilities.