Optimistic about continuing the business success in the coming year, Song added that there is more to be done by Bosch a the Malaysian market and industry are dynamic and changing rapidly.
KUCHING: The Bosch Group ended its 2015 fiscal year in Malaysia with a 10 per cent increase from the previous year to RM 664 million (153 million euros) in consolidated sales. This makes Malaysia the second largest revenue contributor to Bosch in Southeast Asia.
The company’s workforce in the country rose to over 2,600 associates, which is Bosch’s largest workforce in Southeast Asia at 38 per cent.
“We surpassed our own business expectation in the past year with growth above market average for most of our divisions,” said Simon Song, managing director of Bosch in Malaysia.
Optimistic about continuing the business success in the coming year, Song added that there is more to be done: “The Malaysian market and industry are dynamic and changing rapidly.
“Increased agility and new ways of seizing opportunities are essential.
“This includes strengthening our collaboration with partners, widening online portfolios for consumer-centric products, and increasing our mid-price point product
range that is sophisticated, yet affordable.”
Malaysia is a key research and development location for the Bosch Group. Last year alone, Bosch invested over RM138 million into the country and a majority is spent on research and development efforts.
The expansion of Bosch’s car multimedia plant in Penang in April this year is a testament of this.
Besides increasing production capacity, the plant expansion will enable Bosch in Malaysia to take on more projects in developing future connectivity solutions for Bosch worldwide, and integrating them into today’s cars.
Another key investment in 2016 is the retrofitting of the car multimedia plant with Industry 4.0 technologies.
More details on the project will be announced soon.
With the full acquisition of Robert Bosch Automotive Steering GmbH last year, Bosch expanded its mobility solutions portfolio in Malaysia with an increased product range and offerings, making cars even more comfortable, economical, and safer.
Since last year, the Automotive Steering plant in Penang began supplying electric power steering systems to local automotive manufacturers.
Bosch also acquired projects for Connectivity Control Units (CCU), and Malaysia is the company’s designated global R&D facility for further development of the CCU for markets worldwide such as China and Europe.
The CCU is an integral part of the eCall system – an innovative emergency system that transmits data such as location and time to centralised monitoring centers when an accident occurs.
These centers then relay critical information that are triggered by sensors within the vehicle to emergency rescue services, thus reducing response times to the accident scene, especially in rural areas.
This paves the way to enable information exchange between vehicles, as well as between vehicles and traffic infrastructure.
To foster greater awareness on safe driving, Bosch became a partner of the Malaysian ‘Safe Steps’ programme.
The programme, initiated by the Prudence Foundation, is a first-of-its-kind pan-Asian public service campaign to raise awareness on road safety.
Bosch is also collaborating with international institutions such as NCAP, Asean NCAP and other partners to launch the ‘Stop the Crash’ campaign in November 2016 to promote awareness of active safety technologies in Malaysia.
The campaign aims to educate the public on the importance of having safe and reliable automotive technologies in their vehicles.
“Bosch is an exceptionally diversified company, and this diversification is our strategic advantage in an age of connectivity.
“We therefore see considerable business opportunities in the areas of ecommerce, connectivity, and geographical outreach within Malaysia,” said Song.