Hitachi's Silver Lining - Pdworld.com

“Internationalisation has always been one of the mainobjectives of our company. We have sufficient machinery,technology, personnel and production capacity tosupply machines all over the world and not just to thedomestic market”, says SIMA President Javier GarciaMarina.SIMA’s GlobaSpain is going throughone of its worsteconomic crises. People,companies, and thewhole nation are sufferingand so far there areno clear signs of recovery.But most peoplebelieve that the bottomhas been reached andthe only direction isupwards now.By Jan HermanssonSome special analysts in economic trends say that Spain willnot reach the bottom until the real estate prices in Spain dropeven more. And this situation has particularly hit the Spanishmanufacturing industry forcing several to close or reduceemployees. But there are companies that are going the otherway. Companies that managed to find new ways of doing andincreasing business by becoming more flexible in terms of development,manufacturing and sales. A good example is SimaSA in Granada in the south of Spain.A whole new way of thinkingIn March the company introduced new products and announceda new way of design, production and customerapproach. “Sima and many Spanish companies like us areaffected by the recession. It is hard to grow in a climate likethis but also challenging to find new ways to succeed. We arenow strongly focusing on strengthening our position abroadas the local market in Spain is very weak,” says Sima PresidentJavier Garcia Marina.Since Javier Garcia Marina’s father, Antonio Garcia,founded the company in 1970 it has had continuous growthboth inside and outside of the Spanish boarder. In the earlyyears the manufacturing was focused on making machineryfor mitre cutting of tiles. Soon after the company was formedit started on a path of internationalisation, which has beenintensified during the last year, forced by the recession andpopular products and a strong sales network.Sima is currently selling their produdcts in more than 45countries within the 5 continents. “Internationalization hasalways been one of the main objectives of our company. Wehave sufficient machinery, technology, personnel and productioncapacity to supply machines all over the world and notjust to the domestic market. Therefore, being present in othermarkets was not an option for us but both a need and an opportunityto continue to grow. From a commercial viewpoint,we have a professional sales force capable of serving all markets.An example of our firm support for the markets is the openingof a new fully owned office in Italy,” says Javier.Below the SIMA head office in Granada.64 PDi • Issue 2 • May - June 2011