We leverage digital technology and our engineering expertise to create smart, safe and sustainable factories, production lines and operations as our customers’ engineering solution partner. We embrace innovation in automation, and our highperformance valves and actuators optimise processes for greater productivity, supporting a wide range of industries in becoming more efficient and sustainable.
Market trends and our response
Geopolitical tensions, macro-economic turmoil and global supply chain disruption have prompted a return of manufacturing to the USA and Europe, with significant investment in factory builds and demand for automated production lines and warehouse operations. However, labour scarcity is affecting manufacturing operations for many industries, including food, pharmaceutical and automotives, and driving the need for automation.
We are expanding into new industries, such as electric vehicles in China, to diversify our market presence and reach untapped opportunities in sectors with growing demand for automation solutions.
Different industries have unique challenges and requirements, and we are positioning IMI to address specific needs with innovative solutions.
Our customers increasingly want smart products to simplify factory management and operations, such as identifying the source of a leak on a pneumatic line or increasing pneumatic circuit efficiency to manage air flow. We expect technology in Industrial Automation applications will drive sustainability. For example, our customer-led innovations support more sustainable solutions for transporting packaged food and prolonging shelf life.
Percent of 2023 sales
IMI growth target
Creating value in Industrial Automation
Ever since the birth of the assembly line at the beginning of the 20th century, automation has gone hand-in-hand with commercial success, to the point that the businesses that didn’t automate soon struggled. We’ve worked in partnership with customers for many years, optimising their automated processes so they stay competitive.
Bringing energy savings to a robotics-assisted hydroponics farm
We’re co-innovating with our customers and leveraging digital technology to create the smart, safe, sustainable factories, production lines and warehouse operations of the future.
Our sector
A leading position in actuators in the Americas
We offer a complete suite of pneumatic and electric actuation systems, including actuators, valves, air preparation and accessories
We have over 80 years of experience partnering with customers to solve their automation challenges
Around 400 engineers support customers with their most critical automation challenges
2023 highlights
Continued to simplify the business, improving operating costs through footprint optimisation and co-location of similar products being manufactured in a region.
Resolved latent supply chain challenges associated with a wide spread of suppliers through supply chain consolidation and localisation.
Building presence in electric actuator portfolio from integrating Bahr, leading to wins in contact lens manufacturing and packaging machinery.
Successful traction of new automation product, Transforming Tooling, for automotive market with customers.
Priorities for 2024 and beyond
Next year, we will focus on developing integrated solutions to provide more comprehensive answers to customer challenges. We will continue to improve our service through lead time reduction, to offer best-in-class for design to manufacturing cycle time for machine OEMs. Another focus is strengthening our customer insights through investing in a new Customer Relationship Management system and digital tools to identify patterns and opportunities for cross-selling. Streamlining our customers’ online purchasing process and enhancing the clarity of product information on our website will make it easier for customers to source what they need, ensuring a positive user experience with IMI.
To continue building deeper relationships with our customers we will engage with them to identify opportunities where multiple products can address specific customer needs. Through this understanding, we can customise and align our solutions to meet their individual needs and goals.
Starting with our manufacturing footprint in Europe, we will continue to simplify our supply chain and improve customer service by relocating our UK-based Fradley site and consolidating manufacturing in Brno, while ensuring customer service and delivery are unaffected.