Fair Friend to Challenge NT$70 B. in Sales in 2012

Taipei, Feb. 9, 2012 (CENS)--The Fair Friend Group will challenge NT$70 billion in total sales, including those generated by machine-tool, electronics and green-energy business units, in 2012, says Jimmy Chu, the chairman.

The group expects its machine-tool unit's sales to increase to NT$45 billion this year from NT$34.8 billion in 2011, or half of its 2018 sales goal of NT$100 billion.

Chu says the domestic machine-tool industry will improve in the second half with the first-half having been impacted by the European sovereign debt crisis, without achieving robust growth in sales in 2012.

Fair Friend is the first Taiwanese conglomerate to establish production bases in China, Taiwan, Italy, Japan, the U.S., Germany, South Korea, India and France. With 56 subsidiaries worldwide, the group has in the machine-tool sector 31 firms, 31 factories, and 19 brands worldwide, being the world's sole machine-tool conglomerate to establish production bases in the eight-largest industrial nations.

The group has invest US$10 million to set up a joint-venture plant in India with COMOS Corp., one of India's leading business groups, with the joint-venture plant to soon begin mass production of machining centers and lathes at initial annual output reaching 600 units, to be mainly supplied to the Indian market.

In the foreseeable future, the group will cooperate with two Japanese firms to acquire a large machine-tool firm in Japan or help it set up branch office in Taiwan, aiming to upgrade Taiwan's machine-tool manufacturing technologies.

Thanks to efforts to enhance R&D, Fair Friend has upgraded products to Japanese level and aims for annual output of 10,000 machine tools by 2016, for which 100 to 150 R&D personnel will be hired.