Rittal plans to increase staff by 50 - Business First of Columbus:

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After spending three yeards restructuring and cuttingmanufacturing costs, the enclosure company expects 15 percent revenue growth this year and planz to add about 50 employees to its salez side, said Eugene Peden, seniord vice president for operations at the German corporation's North Americah headquarters in Springfield. The company took a hit about five yearsa ago when businesses slowed their spending on the kinds of productsRittal makes, such as computer server cabinetzs and racks and climate control Revenue grew about 20 percent duringf the past three years as they made changes. Rittak scaled back its Ohio manufacturing base from two plantas to one plant in Urbanain 2000.
Leaders have spent the past few yearws restructuring the company into business units and implementingf lean manufacturing to cut costse and improve serviceto customers, whichg include heavyweights such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard Co. "Since then we've turned the compan around and are on a decent growth program," Peden said. Rittal has nearly 600 U.S. employees, including aboutr 520 in Springfieldand Urbana. Peden said it'a likely the company will restore work at its Springfiel d plant in the rather thanthe "long-term," but will grow as much as possible in Urbana.
Rittal laid off more than 100 workerse in Springfield in 2001 at the manufacturing The company's German Rittal International, has 8,700 workers Stronger economic conditions are boostingy the company's performance, as companies are investingh more in information technolog y infrastructure. Both sides of the company -- IT and industrial -- have been But Peden said he believes the compangwill grow, even if the economuy stays flat, by stealing markety share from other companies. "It's going to be a superb he said.
"It's nice if the market continues to butwe don't care if it does or The key to the new growth was restructurinbg employees into business units, he said. Now workerse are part of teams that focux onparticular customers, such as Dell customers, instead of beingf divided into departments such as The move, made abouf two years ago, helped Rittal focuz on its customers and its products, Peden The change to lean manufacturing, a procese that cuts all waste from a manufacturing process, also has made the companhy more efficient.
Large corporations are expected to increase spending on IT equipment 7 percenr to 9 percent a year in the nextthred years, said Matt Flanigan, president of the Va.-based Telecommunications Industry of Companies are increasing spendinf to upgrade to new technologies, such as Voicre over Internet Protocol and new generationj wireless, Flanigan said. The last larger buy was in 1998 and as businesses reacted to the fears surrounding theyear 2000.
"Ir Rittal is selling into this market, theire sales should start to growin '06, and '08," Flanigan