After the record sales year in 2017, Basler AG is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The Ahrensburg-based company can look back on an eventful and successful past. What began as a two-man operation in the technical center in Lübeck has developed into the world's leading manufacturer of industrial cameras.
Setting standards for the future
As the world market leader, Basler sets standards in many respects, both on the product side and in socially relevant areas such as promoting young talents and reconciling work and family life. As an employer, the company enjoys an excellent reputation and has been able to build the industry's largest talent pool. Basler is heavily involved in school projects and regional initiatives; for example, the company is a founding member of the „Stiftung Beruf und Familie im HanseBelt“ ("Foundation Career and Family in HanseBelt") and has held the Hertie Foundation's "audit berufundfamilie" (“audit career and family”) certificate since 2011.
The continuing further development of the successful ace camera series as well as the development and marketing of new technologies such as 3D and embedded vision are important elements in Basler’s product strategy. A sustainable growth strategy will continue the success of the company in the future. With the acquisition of mycable GmbH, a leading provider in the field of consulting and development of embedded computing architectures, Basler is strengthening the expansion of its business in the direction of computer vision.
Norbert Basler and Dietmar Ley are expecting developments in the coming years: "The classic market of factory automation is changing; machine vision is constantly being revolutionized. The embedded vision trend will gradually replace today's predominantly PC-based image processing and at the same time enable a multitude of new applications. We want to play an active role in this development and open up new market segments. This will lay the foundation for the sustainability of our growth."
"I am very proud of what we have achieved at Basler on the basis of trusting cooperation and long-term thinking, especially in our record year 2017," emphasizes CEO Dietmar Ley. "We owe this to our courage in taking risks and our willingness to understand constant change as normal - but above all to our more than 600 employees worldwide, their exceptionally strong identification with the company, their creativity and their motivation.”
Looking back: From system supplier to component manufacturer
When Norbert Basler founded the company in 1988 together with a fellow student and a starting capital of 2,000 D-Mark, the business idea was clear: an image processing company. Within a few years success was achieved, especially with systems for testing optical data carriers. 10 years later, the company began to develop its own cameras and market them worldwide from 1998 on. A year later Basler went public. With its new strategic focus on the camera business, Basler entered the new millennium and gradually withdrew from the systems business over the next few years. Basler strengthened sales in the Far East and built its own production facility in Singapore. This strategy contributed significantly to the strong growth of the company: Camera production rose from 24,000 units in 2009 to more than 450,000 units in 2017. Through its consistent focus on the volume segments of the industrial camera market, Basler achieved annual revenue growth rates of more than 15 percent despite steadily decreasing average prices. In the record year of 2017, Basler even increased its sales by 54 percent over the previous year. This success is also reflected in the stock market: In 2017, the Basler share is the most successful share in northern Germany. The consistent growth is also the result of the company's high innovation performance and the resulting high attractiveness of the products it brings to the market.