March/April 2003

Swisslog, the big Swiss-based business with wide-ranging interests in supply-chain software, mechanical handling and process automation, has announced that it is to focus on two core businesses in order to improve performance in "a difficult market".

It says it is to concentrate on warehouse and distribution solutions and on healthcare. It has not yet revealed what specific measures it might take, but says it will accelerate an existing programme to divest non-core businesses. It has admitted that it has experienced a particularly sharp drop in earnings from the material flow systems segment, although its UK-based Transnorm business says it had a record year last year. The group says "strategically relevant segments" including supply-chain solutions and software have continued to perform well.

Its market analysis is widely held to reflect the position of many other companies in its sector, even though few are willing to go public with their views.

Another that has recently done so is Open Business Solutions. In a briefing in March, Ross Telford, head of parent company Anisa, said: "I can't recall a situation where we've been seeing so many companies in our sector going into melt-down." OBS, however, says its own business remains 25 per cent up on last year's. "But there's no doubt that the situation out there is tough," Telford said.