VISION LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS


Business strategies for success


The vision sector is changing rapidly, so how can firms thrive? Holly Cave speaks to some key vision suppliers


T


he machine vision industry witnessed record growth in 2021. As it grows and continues to mature, the vision sector


has become a rapidly evolving landscape. Headlines report on the latest big mergers and acquisitions, but is conglomeration the only future for the sector? Across the wider technology market,


customers are typically far more aware of the variety of solutions and products available and are better able to assess which product meets their specific needs. As Davide Ferrari, marketing


communication manager for MaVis Imaging, a subsidiary of Framos, said: ‘Tey know what they want to achieve and are looking for technology partners to supply custom or semi-custom solutions.’


Expect consolidation While the routes to market are not changing that much, it is evident that consolidation through mergers, acquisitions and closer partnerships is a key trend in the machine vision sector. Market competition and commoditisation – in which technologies are becoming more commonplace, less differentiated and thus more closely price-matched – is a driving force for consolidation and the domination of larger players. Machine vision companies of a certain


size are acquiring smaller companies with complementary technology to build up portfolios in certain areas. Te conglomerate Teledyne Technologies bought Flir Systems last year in a $7.36bn deal. It also owns a large number of companies including e2v, Dalsa and Lumenera. Such deals are likely to be the ongoing


direction of travel, not only within the industry but also across the wider technology landscape, Ferrari suggested. Zebra Technologies has moved into the


market by buying up firms, most recently Matrox Imaging and, last year, Adaptive


Vision. Another example is the chip maker Intel, which has already demonstrated its interest in the industrial 3D imaging market by building prosumer solutions that bridge the gap between personal consumers and a professional customer base. ‘Whether this type of move becomes an


interesting return on investment for leading technology industries across the board is another question,’ added Ferrari.


Changing role for distributors We are seeing manufacturers and distributors merge or team up, with the shared aim of reaching customers more easily and gaining greater insight into their needs. Tere is also a lot in this for customers, said Henning Tiarks, executive director, digital and software business management at Basler. ‘By combining the unique competency


of former distributors in helping customers solve all kinds of vision-related tasks with more direct access to Basler, this move will allow us to increase the value for the customer significantly. And as their hardware and software needs become much more transparent, we can create better products,’ he said. While companies such as Basler are


buying their sales partners in other countries to develop direct routes to market – Basler bought its Italian sales partner Advanced Technologies and a stake in its French distributor i2S in May 2022, and its Beijing-based distributor in 2018 – stand- alone distributors in the current market are fighting to remain relevant. Is there still a place for them as stand-alone businesses? Ferrari believes so, arguing that these


companies have an important role as experts in managing expectations and delivery time frames within the image processing chain. ‘In the past, there was a strong demand for next-day delivery,’ he said. ‘But as a result of the global pandemic,


8 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE VISION YEARBOOK 2022/23


‘[Vision companies] should adapt to new business models and define a certain, mostly new, role in the value chain’


customers are now actually forecasting their requirements and scheduling deliveries.’ Mark Radford, CEO of LMI Technologies,


owned by the TKH Group, agrees that, with the increasing complexity and huge variety of products on the market, distributors are as important as ever. ‘Customers come to distribution partners to have their challenges understood,’ he said. While the space in most market segments or regions for purely reselling is rapidly


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