Sales at HORIBA Instruments are soaring, thanks to strong demand in solar energy, LED technology and the automotive sector.
The company saw turnover triple in 2010 to close to £50 million, with sales continuing to grow, up 15 per cent in the year to April 2011.
To meet growing demand, HORIBA has engaged new sales and service staff at its UK headquarters on Moulton Park, and will expand further with additional recruitment in its service, design and calibration departments.
Stuart Knight, Director at HORIBA Instruments, said: “The photo voltaic market has quadrupled in the past two years, and the LED market has done the same in just a year. We took the decision to get into these markets early in response to fluctuating demand in the European semiconductor manufacturing industry, and it has paid off.
“We have also benefited from a resurgence in investment in automotive research and development, and our testing systems are contributing to the development of new automotive technologies.”
The spectacular results are mainly propelled by the company’s Semiconductor and Automotive Testing Systems (ATS) segments.
It diversified beyond the semiconductor industry into providing control equipment to manufacturers of photovoltaic cells and LED technologies, and now supplies major manufacturers in both of these sectors.
Meanwhile, the ATS segment is responding to increasing demand from leading research and development companies in the automotive sector where specialist testing equipment provides a competitive advantage.
In a new growth area, the UK operation is now developing sales for a niche range of hand-held instruments, building on HORIBA’s worldwide range of scientific products, which include systems for elemental analysis and materials characterisation. The hand-held range includes products for measuring nitrates in soil, ion concentration meters for agriculture and food industry, pH and conductivity meters as well as instruments for checking radiation levels in the goods and local environment, and the glossiness of polished surfaces for marble floor maintenance and stone processing.
HORIBA is looking for engineers in Northampton with experience in instrumentation, mechanical and electrical engineering, particularly in the fields of automotive, environmental analysis or air pollution monitoring.
