Swiss cabling specialist Reichle & De-Massari (R&M, www.rdm.com), today announced that it has successfully completed fifty years of operations. Since its inception in 1964 R&M has steadily expanded its presence across 30 countries and has rapidly expanded in segments like office cabling, data centers and FTTx.
In India, R&M has been expanding rapidly. It recently acquired the business activities and operating assets of Advanced Fiber Systems (AFS) in India. AFS is a reputed manufacturer of fiber-optic products and solutions for the Public Network market and has been an R&M certified assembly partner for the E-2000™ connector for several years. AFS was founded in 2002 and has its production facility located in Bangalore. The management and all employees of AFS have been transferred to R&M in India.
At a recent event, R&M formally inaugurated the production facility after the acquisition. The strategic importance R&M accords to its operations in India was manifested by the presence of its top leadership at the event. This included Mr. Martin Reichle, Owner of R&M, Mr. Michel Riva, CEO, and Mr. Laurent Amestoy, Executive VP of R&M Asia-Pacific.
Inaugurating the R&M facility in Bangalore, Martin Reichle, Owner of R&M said, “This acquisition provides R&M with the industrial platform to strengthen its existing structured cabling business in India and addresses new strategic market segments such as Data Center and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) which positively contributed to our growth last year. The growth markets in Asia and the Middle East achieved double-digit growth and now account for more than a quarter of the total turnover. We are extremely optimistic about our future in India.”
Michel Riva, CEO of R&M commented, “We are very excited about the benefits of this acquisition. R&M has achieved tremendous growth in India since beginning operations in 2006. This acquisition is a key milestone to further expand our business in India. We can now actively participate in the growing fiber-optic network deployments, Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) roll-outs and Data Center projects. I remain confident that our high-quality approach and greater local presence will take us to the next level in India.”
Laurent Amestoy, Executive VP of R&M Asia-Pacific mentioned, “We have been able to grow rapidly in India year on year and with the acquisition of AFS we are looking forward to broaden and strengthen our fiber optic portfolio. AFS has been a certified assembly partner for R&M so it will be a smooth transition in terms of technology implementation. This will be a very important year for R&M’s fiber solutions.”
R&M has been active in India since 2006 and is headquartered in Bangalore, with direct presence in 8 cities across the country. With the integration of the business activity of AFS, the number of R&M employees will now rise to over 60. Globally, R&M has more than 750 employees in over 30 countries.
