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Advanced technology

Celsius leads the way forward

The organisational structure of the Celsius Group enables it to provide high standards of technology and service.

The publicly quoted Celsius Group is one of Sweden's leading advanced-technology industrial companies and its areas of expertise include the defence industry and closely related fields of commercial technology. The group comprises such well-known names as Bofors, Kockums, CelsiusTech and FFV Aerotech.
As an advanced-technology industrial group, over the years Celsius has gained leading-edge experience and competence in a number of wide-ranging fields. The companies within the group have established very strong international reputations in their own right and many are considered to be the most technically advanced in their various areas of specialisation.

The diverse activities of Celsius serve to strengthen and complement one another as military and commercial applications become more similar. The combination of mutual strengths and development resources generates a number of opportunities for cross-fertilisation between the military and commercial activities of the group.
Defence-industry activities account for approximately 70 per cent of the group's overall operations and commercial production represents the remaining 30 per cent.

Effective organisation
Celsius has introduced a coherent organisational structure whereby in-house operations are conducted by a number of business units that are based on clearly defined product areas.

The Company is founded on an extremely advanced technological approach

These business units function as independent profit centres, reporting direct to Celsius head office, that acquire a clear operational role. In order to optimise the group's combined business strengths, marketing operations are being co-ordinated centrally in the form of regionally-based marketing units.
The defence industry constitutes the largest part of the group's operations and accounts for approximately two-thirds of Celsius' total business activities. within the group defence comprises eight business units that include weapon systems, missiles, torpedoes, ammunition and small arms, command and information systems, sensors and countermeasures, naval platforms and military maintenance.
Commercial aviation support is one of Celsius' most important growth areas and presently it accounts for almost 16 per cent of the group's sales. Operations are concentrated primarily in the US although they also are conducted in Sweden and the Netherlands, serving airline operations throughout the world.

Growth potential
Business development is the operations area under which the business units for infomatics, explosives and material technology are organised. Although they account for only four per cent of Celsius operations at present, these units possess considerable growth potential.

Niche companies' operations are strictly commercial in outlook and account for 10 per cent of total group sales. Operations include the off shore, engineering, shipyard and environmental technology sectors.
"Our new method of organisation is very firmly focused on increased profitability," says CEO Lars G Josefsson. "It will provide the group with greater opportunities to utilise our resources in the most effective way possible, a factor that will improve our business prospects considerably. We are consolidating in those areas where we particularly excel and this also is yielding substantial efficiency gains."
By consolidating our resources in business units, we can optimise the development potential of each area.

Business units within the group include those that concentrate on weapon systems and missiles

Rationalisation of operations with similar business concepts and markets will ensure that we are better equipped to meet the varied demands of different markets."

Creating a new marketing organisation
In a business world that is becoming more and more competitive, a customer-orientated approach is of paramount importance and it is crucial for any company to fully understand and respond to the customer's current and future requirements.

Demands made by Celsius' customers cover a wide variety of different elements and they can range from product performance, price and delivery, to reliability, quality and technology transfer.
"This means that the relationship with the customer affects the entire organisation. And this in turn means that a customer-orientated approach must be reflected in every aspect of the organisation," states Josefsson.
Celsius is strongly committed to meeting the demands of its customers. Future projects are likely to become increasingly complex and in many cases will involve a high degree of sophistication in terms of both research and development and corporate structure. This places even greater demands on access to relevant and broad experience as well as the benefits of combined export resources. To this must be added the fact that counter-purchase agreements are likely to become even more complex in the future.
In response to this trend, Celsius is establishing a regionally-based marketing unit and has appointed Roger Sprimont, the company's executive vice president, to be in charge of this new unit

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