The new 14,000 m2 factory in Vuadens, canton Fribourg, which broke ground in September, will enable the Switzerland-based machine tool builder to develop and manufacture machines for the production of highly-precise micro-scale parts for industry sectors including computer, medical and electronics in addition to watchmaking and jewellery.
The roof of the futuristic glass-covered factory will incorporate a large solar panel that operates in conjunction with a climate control system to maintain temperatures within 1° C – ideally suited for the manufacture of the company's turn-mill machines and transfer machining centres.
Bumotec was founded in nearby Sâles in the 1960s, and will move all of its operations to the new building once completed in 2016. It became part of Starrag group in 2012.
Following a Starrag group reorganisation in 2014, it and sister company SIP sit in a new Precision Engineering division headed up by Jean-Daniel Isoz. (The other divisions are aerospace and energy, which includes brands Berthiez, Dörries, Droop+Rein, Scharmann, Starrag and TTL, and transportation and industrial components, which includes brands Heckert and WMW, and a cross-cutting customer service division). The group has headquarters in Rorschach, Switzerland and operates factories in Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK and India.
Starrag group reported in early March that 2014 orders were down by 4% to CHF 407 million (€338 million) particularly because of declines in Europe, but sales and profits were both up slightly (CHF 393 million or €326.7 million, and CHF 14.4 million or €12 million). It spent slightly more than that in capital expenditure for the year (CHF 14.6 million), mainly because of the Bumotec plant.
