Sweden-based Arcam seems to be setting up a German subsidiary.
Arcam is one of the very few companies manufacturing metal 3D printing equipment, one of the hottest sellers these days, as more forward-thinking manufacturers have begun to apply metal 3D printing to their processes. Any company making metal 3D printers is experiencing a boost.
Arcam is a bit different than most of the other players, in that it is quite a bit smaller and sells ONLY metal 3D printing equipment. One of their competitors, for example, is 3D Systems, a massive company with sales, support and distribution mechanisms set up all around the world. ARCAM doesn’t have that.
Yet.
However, if you happen to look in Arcam’s job postings, you’ll find one seeking someone to take charge of a new German operation:
Arcam is seeking a high profile entrepreneurial individual to set up and grow our German sales and service operation. In order to benefit from the growing business opportunities in Germany, Arcam is looking to set up a legal entity and expand operations in Germany considerably. This individual will set up a local office to integrate administration, warehousing, and application support, including potentially an in-house application centre. Arcam Germany is planned to handle operations in Germany as well as German speaking parts of Switzerland and in Austria.
What can one surmise from this? Certainly Arcam believes they can sell many metal 3D printers in those German-speaking countries, apparently sufficient to fund an entire organization and its setup.
That’s incredibly good news for Arcam and 3D printing in general. If their sales predictions are valid, it means there must be many German companies now “turned on” to the notion of metal 3D printing. If they’re turned on, then you can believe that their competitors, located in any other countries, won’t be far behind.
It may also suggest it could be time to buy stock in Arcam, which just happens to be one of the very few companies in the 3D printing business that is publicly traded. Their stock has mostly been flat through 2014 and 2015, after a huge fall in early 2014, a fall even more dramatic than those suffered by other publicly traded 3D printing companies. Even so, their move into German can only mean good things are anticipated.
Via Arcam (PDF)
