What is Sandvik’s mission statement?
Today we visited Sandvik Coromant, a world leading high-technology engineering group headquartered in Sweden, that specializes in manufacturing advanced special alloys and ceramic materials. Sandvik is intent on always providing a safe environment, and as stated in their presentation today, “Sandvik’s objective is zero harm to our people, the environment we work in, our customers and our suppliers.” Sandvik’s mission statement is to develop, manufacture, and market highly processed products that contribute positively to the productivity of their customers. They told us of four ideas/words they try to concentrate on: ambition, speed, focus and globalization.
Who are Sandvik’s customers?
Sandvik is separated into 5 groups; Sandvik Construction, Sandvik Machining Solutions, Sandvik Materials Technology, Sandvik Mining, and Sandvik Venture. Sandvik has an array of customers, though the Mebane location actually only sells to their personal distributors, for example Sandvik Machining Solutions uses the American Distribution Center. When asked about their consumers today, our tour guide told us “anyone in the metal cutting industry.” Our tour guide also compared their business to the razor blade industry, because their high quality products have their own specific configuration like razor blades only fit the model they were designed for. This keeps their customers coming back.
What do Sandvik customers value?
When asked this question during the presentation today, they told us Sandvik customers value the quality of the product that they are purchasing. Sandvik is a world leader in their field because their products work very well and are impressively durable. Our presenters today did note that their products are not the cheapest, but they are well worth it for the quality and durability of what the consumer is receiving. Compteitors world-wide need to be constantly looking for ways to improve their products to compete with Sandvik.
What are Sandvik’s results?
Sandvik has developed subsidiaries in over 60 countries, and representatives in over 130 countries. They report to return 19.8% on their capital employed and have a 13.7% operating margin. They operate using the SEK as opposed to the dollar which our presenters today told us works in their favor for the most part. Sandvik is publically shared and has about 111,000 shareholders. 34% of their business comes from Europe, 18% from North America, 18% from Asia, 11% from Australia, 10% from Africa, and 9% from South America. The Mebane location that we visited produces 10% of the total units, while the Gimo, Sweden location produces the most at about 23%.
What is Sandvik’s plan?
Going forward, our presenters told us that Sandvik looks to “grow east and west” to North America and Asia, because the majority of their plants are currently located in Europe. Both Asia and North America have recently shown to be increasingly relevant to the industrial world. They also are always looking for ways to better utilize automation. The Mebane location individually is looking to expand into the big, empty “shell of a building” that they built in 2008 but were never actually able to fill because of economic issues.
Follow
