Frost & Sullivan Applauds Blakell Europlacer's Innovation-powered Market Leadership in the SMT Placement Equipment Market

LONDON, Feb. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent research on the flexible surface mount technology (SMT) placement equipment market, Frost & Sullivan presents Blakell Europlacer with the 2014 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Company of the Year. Europlacer's strong, versatile product portfolio and high quality customer service has strengthened its market position, enabling it to increase its revenue by more than 22 percent in 2013, when its direct competitors had been posting negative growth of 20 to 25 percent.

Since the acquisition of Blakell Europlacer by Parable Trust Limited in early 2013, Europlacer has managed to chart strong growth directives. It is keenly focused on providing best-in-class, industry-leading solutions with service, software, training, and optimization instead of merely selling flexible placement equipment.

The company has developed strategic relationships with other SMT equipment manufacturers to understand customer needs, obtain the machines their manufacturing environment demands and thereby, offer a complete SMT line. In addition, it is building products for the refurbishment market to target customers that may not have the resources to upgrade older machines or purchase new ones. The company's retrofitting business has been very well received, especially by environmentally conscious customers.

"The biggest differentiator for Europlacer is the level of flexibility its machines provide, which aid short production runs or fast changeovers," said research analyst, Frost & Sullivan. "The intelligent feeders and trolleys are also optimized to provide the fastest throughput in the market."

Another distinct feature of Europlacer is its software offering. The company's integrated intelligence enables seamless transition during changeovers for different production runs so that customers do not have to contend with downtime and programming for each batch of board manufacturing.

The company has demonstrated a high level of technology innovation in developing products such as intelligent feeders, which are scalable and offer better value for investment. As a result, Europlacer helps customers develop, upgrade, and continue to grow their businesses.

The company also boasts of a strong service team that has helped maintain the quality, depth, and longevity of customer relationships. Europlacer has a talented, tenured group of technicians whose experience facilitates rapid turnaround on customer issues.

"The company sends its service personnel to train customers on new installations and uses this connection to further strengthen customer relationships," noted research analyst, Frost & Sullivan. "The company's customer service offerings can be altered to suit the varying needs of different regions and individual customers."

Frost & Sullivan finds that customers appreciate Europlacer's endeavours to create a product line that allows high flexibility without compromising speed, service response times, on-time performance, and low cost of ownership. This has helped the company expand its presence and retain the loyalty of its customer base.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in terms of growth strategy and implementation. The award recognizes a high degree of innovation with products and technologies and the resulting leadership in terms of customer value and market penetration.

Frost & Sullivan's Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.

About Blakell Europlacer

Europlacer became a division of Parable Trust Ltd. in 2013. Europlacer has been developing machines for SMT electronics assembly since the 1970s and invented the intelligent feeder concept in the 1980s. After acquisition by Blakell Europlacer in 1991, the company moved away from split-axis to the inherently more capable X-Y architecture that underpins the company's pick-and-place machines today. Europlacer's policy has been to ensure wherever possible that technology purchased many years ago, especially feeders, remain compatible with the latest pick-and-place equipment. Europlacer designs and manufactures a comprehensive range of highly flexible SMT pick-and-place systems for the global electronics industry. For more information, visit Europlacer's Web site at www.europlacer.com.

Contact:
Steve Farragher
Blakell Europlacer
30 Factory Road
Upton, Poole
Dorset BH16 5SL
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 1202 266500

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan