Engel Reorients Global Business, Adds Production in Mexico

With its fiscal year ending in April, Austrian injection molding machine and automation supplier Engel announced a new structure for its business, naming Vanessa Malena president of Engel Americas and updating the market on its latest machine production center in Queretaro, Mexico. Established in Schwertberg, Austria, in 1945, the fourth-generation, family-owned business maintains global headquarters in Europe, but also hews to a philosophy of putting production plants close to its customers.

As of Engel’s new fiscal year starting April 2024, the company modified its sales structure and internal processes to align with its three major sales regions globally: the Americas, Europe and Asia. Malena, who already headed up the company’s North American subsidiary in York, Pennsylvania, will now lead the Americas, including operations in Central and South America.

Engel began machine production at its existing subsidiary in Querétaro, Mexico, in 2023. In fact,  an all-electric e-mac manufactured on this newest production line was already displayed at the Plastimagen trade show last November, with shipments of the machines having already started to customers in Mexico.

“We are confident that customers in the North, Central and South Americas will all benefit from the capacity and expertise delivered by this expansion,” Malena says. The company announced that it has allocated a “double-digit million” sum for the expansion of its global network in the forthcoming fiscal year. Engel also recently increased its capacity in York, focusing on its custom automation center, while also renovating its office and technology center in Corona, California.

In a press conference, Malena said the production facility in Mexico, which is Engel’s tenth globally, employs more than 60 with that figure to double by the end of the year. In June, it will move into a rented facility, as it builds out a new structure on a newly acquired 70,000-square-meter plot of land as part of a €30 million investment. To start, the site will build the two-platen T-Win and all-electric eMac machine lines, with production of complete cells built from scratch, according to Engel Group CEO Stefan Engleder.

“We see a positive, ongoing trend of reshoring going into Mexico,” Engleder said in the press conference. He noted that many European companies, especially those from Germany and Austria which are experiencing extremely high inflationary pressures at this time, are seeking to build a footprint in the U.S. and Mexico or relocate some production to southern or eastern Europe.

Addressing concerns that Engel might be seeking to move production from Europe and Austria, Engleder said that this move represents all-new capacity, not a reallocation of existing capacity. “Engel invests to be close to customers,” Engleder says. “We’re not going out of Europe, It’s about proximity to customers.” He also noted that since 2013, Engel has invested €300 million in Austria, and that he believes the European markets will come back.

For the fiscal year that ended in March, Engel’s revenue was down 6% to approximately €1.6 billion. According to various association figures, Engel said the global market for injection molding machines was off by 40%. Despite the overall downward trend, Engleder said Engel has been able to grow its market share in the shrinking market. He also noted that after a long hiatus, the return of NPE was a strong one.

“After six years, we didn’t know what to expect,” Engleder says. “You never know after six years — maybe no one cares — but we are seeing a positive trend. We have seen many contacts, decision-makers and technology scouts for contract manufacturers.”