After its success as a leader in deposit safes, entrance control and cash handling markets in Europe, the Gunnebo Security Group is stepping up its campaign to further expand the company'€™s business in the Asia and Pacific.

Gunnebo, with an annual turnover of about ¤610 million (US$836 million), expects the Asia and Pacific, which is now the group'€™s fastest growing market, will become the main contributor to its revenue in the future.

The expansion in the Asia and Pacific, especially in Southeast Asia and China in recent years, has been very encouraging as indicated by the increase in the contribution of the region to its revenue in the last five years, Karin Wallstrom, the business group'€™s head of marketing and communications, said.

She said that Indonesia, among its largest operations in the world, had become one of the main areas to be further developed as part of the expansion in the region.

At present, Indonesia contributes about 20 percent to the group'€™s total revenue from the Asia Pacific, second only to India. Gunnebo has for many years operated deposit safe and vault factories in both Indonesia and India, which also export their products to other countries.

Wallstrom said that to support its stronghold in the safe, vault and other security solutions market, Gunnebo Indonesia would further expand its business in the distribution of cash handling and entrance control solutions in the country. The two business areas are expected to give a strong contribution to future income as demand for cash handling and entrance solutions in the country has just begun to increase.

'€œIndonesia is quite a promising market for Gunnebo,'€ she said during the launch of the company'€™s new line of cash handling devices in the EuroShop 2014 exhibition in Dusseldorf, Germany, which took place from Feb. 16 to Feb. 20.

In the expo, Gunnebo showcased its range of solutions for cash handling and store security with particular focus on how retailers can make their process more efficient and cost effective. The exhibited devices included cash handling solutions for petrol stations and supermarkets, front and back office cash handling solutions, security solutions for small retailers, monitoring services, entrance security and electronic article surveillance.

One of the cash handling solution being displayed was the SafeCash Counter Deposit Smart, a new front office cash deposit solution for small retail outlets designed for under-the-counter installation. The new device is an entry level note deposit solution that automatically registers counts and stores bank notes in a safe for quick and easy collection.

Bob Turner, Gunnebo'€™s executive in charge of its cash handling business in the Asia and Pacific said that Indonesia '€” where transactions are still mainly done in banknotes '€” was part of the targeted market for the company'€™s cash handling solutions in the region.

He said that the cash handling solution, which was introduced for the first time in the Southeast Asian country in the middle of last year, had attracted interest from the country'€™s big retailers, including hypermarket operators. '€œNegotiations are still underway with several retailers,'€ he added.

According to him, cash handling solutions would help retailers enhance their competitive edge as the devices could significantly reduce operating costs. By employing cash handling solutions, retailers can, for example, reduce administrative costs, a shrinkage caused either by internal theft or genuine counting errors when cashing out.

'€œMore importantly, the cash handling solutions that include secure safes could prevent robbery,'€ he said.

The business group, which provides security products, services and solutions such as cash handling, safes, vaults, entrance security and electronic security, has sales companies in 33 countries, with 5,600 employees.

Gunnebo will also put more emphasis on the marketing of entrance control solutions in emerging markets, particularly in Asia where demand for such devices continued rising not only due to the mushrooming of high-rise buildings but also because of the modernization of transportation facilities such as railway stations and airports.

Gunnebo, which produces entrance control solutions in its factory in Lavis, Italy, is also putting more emphasis on the Asia and Pacific markets to take advantage of the surging demand in the region. The entrance control solutions produced by the company include tripods, speed stiles and point-of-sales.

Alberto Fiorazzo, the project manager at the Lavis factory, said that Gunnebo, which had become the market leader in the entrance control market in Europe in the last several years, saw Asia as its future growth center to offset declining demand in Europe where the market for such devices had become saturated.

Fiorazzo said that the demand from Asia was rising, especially from China, Hong Kong and several Southeast Asian countries. In the past, most of the devices ordered from the region were shipped directly from the factory. '€œBut now some of them have been produced in our new factory in Kunshan, China,'€ he said.

The Chinese factory is located some 40 kilometers outside of Shanghai, where Gunnebo has had a sales company established since August 2010. From the start, production will focus on entrance control solutions for metro systems, products also known as '€œflap gates'€, specifically developed for the Chinese metro market by Gunnebo a few years ago.

Fiorazzo believes that with the development of new airports and railways, Indonesia would become a big market for entrance control solution producers like Gunnebo. He said that the Chinese factory would give the company a greater competitive edge to win the Indonesian market because it could reduce shipping costs.

As part of the modernization of the country'€™s transportation infrastructure, Indonesia is currently improving its airports and railways. Several of the country'€™s airports are now being expanded in order to meet the growing number of passengers and airplane traffic. A mass transportation system is also being developed in Jakarta to ease the notorious traffic jams in the capital. With such development, Indonesia will undoubtedly become an attractive market for entrance control solutions, which are now used mainly in commercial buildings.

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The writer was recently invited to visit Gunnebo'€™s several production facilities in Europe.

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