Siemens Reorganizes to Strengthen Water Business
Siemens Water Technologies plans to reorganize its worldwide business. The changes will involve transitioning its 28 mainly technology-oriented business units to create four new segments aligned to specific markets and target groups.
"By integrating our business in this way, we will lay the foundations for further growth in water business and expansion of our position in the market", explained Joergen Ole Haslestad, chief executive officer of the Industry Solutions Division (IS), during a recent press conference in Munich.
In the future, the Water Technologies business of IS will be divided among four segments: industry, municipal, chemical feed and services.
Since the acquisition of USFilter in 2004, the worldwide water business of Siemens has grown to a total of 2 billion euros, according to the latest figures. In addition, the company's water business, which was originally U.S.-based, has turned over more than one-third outside of the United States
For Haslestad, this is a "clear demonstration of what the global Siemens network can achieve." He now expects further growth – primarily from the expansion of global service business.
"Service business and partnerships with our customers for providing and keeping their equipment maintained – from installation and modernization to expansion of capacity – not only lends impetus to the market but also has potential in respect of volume and earnings", said Haslestad.
In the new organization, the four segments will drive growth by combining responsibility for service development with product management.
In the future, the industry segment will offer products, services, and solutions for process water, wastewater, recycle and reuse, and waste-to-energy in the biopharmaceutical, chemical, food, microelectronics, oil and gas industries, and power, as well as in pulp and paper and in open-cast mining and in the production of iron and steel. The municipal business segment will bear worldwide responsibility for products, solutions, and aftermarket services for drinking water, wastewater, reuse, as well as for the automation of sewage plants and pipeline networks. The chemical feed segment will continue to offer its disinfection portfolio to industry and communities worldwide.
"We will structure the complex business taken over from USFilter more clearly and make it more effective by centralizing processes and standardizing the portfolio", said Haslestad. "We intend to continue growing more quickly than the market, which is currently expanding at a rate of 6 percent per year worldwide – and we want to achieve this goal especially in individual regions such as China and India where the growth potential is double the global average."