PCB Technologies is looking for EMS Acquisition

Above: Assembly floor at PCB Technologies

The sales of the Electronic Manufacturing Services provider from the Galilee, PCB Technologies, were not affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic. “We have experienced growth in demand from our core customers in the defense and medical industries,” said PCB’s CEO Oved Shapira. “They were not affected by the Global pandemic. We even increased our investments in capacity building in order to meet their needs.”

During the second quarter of 2020, revenues grew by approximately 24% compared to the second quarter 2019, amounting to approximately $31.3 million. The growth was felt in the company’s two main areas of operations: the production of printed circuit boards and the assembly of electronic boards.

PCB Technologies reported a 45% increase in gross income (approximately $3.6 million) following the implementation of a plan to improve productivity on the production floor and to reduce fixed production costs. Net income was approximately $1.9 million, compared to $365,000 in the second quarter of 2019. In the first half of the year, sales totaled at approximately $57.4 million, compared to $54 million in the first half of 2019.

Expansion through R&D and Acquisitions

Shapira: “We recently acquired an account that may generate an additional annual revenue of about $5-8 million. This acquisition brings us new customers. We are constantly exploring options to increase production capacity in several destinations in the Western markets through attractive acquisitions.”

PCB Technologies is controlled by the FIMI Opportunity Funds private equity firm (approximately 48%) and is traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange at a value of approximately NIS 366.7 million ($108 million). It provides complex printed circuit board production services and electronic manufacturing services (EMS).

It currently employs roughly 750 people. During the first quarter of 2020, the company established a large research and development department, in order to develop proprietary new technologies to innovate the production of PCB’s and bring new products to the market.

Fabrinet Builds a New Production Facility in Israel

Photo above: David Mitchell (left) and Yuval Maimon

The Global Electronic Manufacturing Services provider (EMS), Fabrinet, is entering Israel and is now in the final stages of building a new manufacturing facility in Yokneam, near Haifa. Fabrinet has invested approximately $6.5 million in preparing a complete production capabilities, ranging from SMT and Microelectronics, to Optics and Mechanical works.

Yuval Maimon, General Manager at Fabrinet Israel, told Techtime that Fabrint’s facility in Israel is the first in the country to provide Electronics, Microelectronics and Optics production services “under one roof”.  Yuval: “Until now customers needed to move their products between several different specialty production services. We bring new offer: total responsibility to all the aspects of production.”

The facility is planned to start working this month (January 2020). It includes also clean rooms for Optics and Microelectronics works and equipment for Active/Passive Alignment, Wire Bonding and Die Attach for up to minus 1 micron accuracy. For now, the production facility employs 15-20 employees.

Fabrinet expects that its facility in Israel will provide local NPI services (New Product Introduction), helping the customers with design for manufacturability, and then transferring those programs to Thailand for volume manufacturing.

Low-volume, High-mix Service Provider

Fabrinet was founded in 2000 by the current chairman, David T. (Tom) Mitchell, one of the co-founders of Seagate Technology, as a low-volume, high-mix service provider for the manufacturing of complex optical components. Today it provides advanced optical packaging and precision optical, electro-mechanical and electronic manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of complex products.

It is focused mainly on optical communication components, modules and sub-systems, industrial lasers, automotive components, medical devices and sensors. Fabrinet employ approximately 12,000 employees worldwide. Its major production is done in Thailand, with additional facilities in the UK and the US. Its total revenues for the fiscal year 2019 (ended in June, 2019) increased by 15.5% YoY to $1.58 billion, mainly as a result of a strong demand for optical communications products.

Flex Launched a New Production Facility in Israel

Flex Ltd, has begun production in its new ​​35,000 square meters mass production manufacturing facility in Modi’in, a small town near Tel aviv. The new facility is highly automated and employs robotic processes and Industry 4.0 methods. According to Mr. Rafi Haddad, GM of business development in Flex Israel, the new production plant consists of Machining, Metal-processing, Electronics Production and Assemble and Packaging Machines, needed for the production of large complete systems such as Industrial 3D Printers or Semiconductor Manufacturing Machines.

The new plant employs approximately 740 employees. Flex plans to expand its workforce in the near future to 1,000 employees. Besides the production floor, flex had also established a new 3D printing center in the site to provide Additive Production Services for its costumers in Israel and in Europe. “Flex chose Israel for the 3D Production, because Israel is a center of excellence in additive manufacturing,” said Haddad to Techtime.

Mr. Rafi Haddad, GM of business development in Flex Israel
Mr. Rafi Haddad, GM of business development in Flex Israel

The new plant complement other production capabilities of Flex in Israel. With approximately 4,000 employees, flex is the biggest Electronics Manufacturing Services provider in the country. Its operation includes a large scale 2,300 employees plant in Migdal Haemek (Northern District of Israel), a production facility of 1,000 employees in Ofakim (small city in the Negev district) and 2 design centers providing engineering services for the company’s costumers.

The decision to build a new modern factory in Israel is also related to the Global Trade wars. Haddad: “Israel had signed free trade agreements with the EU countries, the United States and other countries. The trade tension between China and the US brings European companies to Israel, to look for alternative production services.” Flex is ranked the third largest Electronics Manufacturing Services Provider in the world. It employs about 200,000 people in about 100 manufacturing plants worldwide. Its annual sales in the last fiscal year (ended March 2019) totaled $26.3 billion.