The BARCO group is a 100% Belgian company, located in West-Flanders and owned partially by the Flemish government. It is the perfect example of a Belgian high-tech company, growing successfully abroad, especially in Asia and in Japan.
Founded in 1934, BARCO successively specialized in the manufacturing of radios, televisions and multi-standard colour TV sets. In the mid 60's, the group began to diversify its product range into industrial applications. In the early 80's, an extended product diversification was undertaken into visualization systems and selected automation niches.
Today, BARCO is operating exclusively in industrial & professional markets. It is a niche marketeer selling high quality products through its worldwide distribution network.
With almost 600 engineers employed in its R & D departments, the 3000 people group invests 10% of its turnover each year in achieving technological leadership in four primary fields of advanced electronics: Visualization, Automation, Graphic & Communication Systems.
The Visualization division, which is the largest and comprises BARCO Projection Systems (BPS) and BARCO Display Systems (BDS),is the visualization specialist, offering a wide range of top quality products, ranging from high-resolution monitors to large screen projectors and multi-screen windowing systems.
The Automation devision focuses, on the one hand, on machine and production control systems (CIM) for the texitile and plastics industry, and, on the other hand, on quality control and sensors for the textile, food, mining and recycling industries.
BARCO Graphics specializes in automated prepress systems for the graphics industry (cartography, security printing, photoretouching, page layout...), in imaging systems and electronic tooling systems for the PCB world.
The group's fourth pillar, Communication Systems, provides colour monitors to the broadcast industry as well as RF and monitoring equipment to the cable TV market worldwide.
BARCO's strategy can be summed up in three words: leadership, innovation and expertise.
On the one hand, BARCO Projection Systems (BPS) offers large screen projectors for any type of applications, ranging from entertaiment and staging, business communication and training, to process control, CAD/CAM and simulation.
In the field of Facilities Management, BPS developed the Graph-X Wall, a unique multi-screen windowing system, allowing interactive display of complex, dynamic process information on a large projection wall. It is designed for integration in high-resolution applications such as telecommunications, traffic, energy management....
Further, BARCO has worked together with system operators to develop a range of product solutions for critical simulation applications: seamless screen transitions, luminance & color uniformity, contrast modulation, soft edge matchig....
Growing vertical markets for BPS are presentation, home theaters and electronic cinemas. High performance projectors are designed to render razor sharp and crystal clear images for a wide range of sources. Recently, improvements in Liquid Cristal Display technology applications have been breathtaking.
On the other hand, BARCO Display Systems (BDS) manufactures graphic generators (Barco Chromatics), displays for use in very critical conditions (Avionics & Rugged product group ) and high resolution, color accurate Information Displays.
As growth in highly specialised markets is only ahievable on a global scale, BARCO commits itself to keep developing its sales network, with fully owned sales subsidiaries, distributors and agents in 95 countries worldwide.
In this context, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), Internatinal System Builder (ISB) and International Account agreements are more and more concluded, with the support of our distributors for service and maintenance.
In Japan, BPS reached an OEM agreement with Matsushita for the delivery of LCD projectors.
Meanwhile, BARCO Graphics' sales soared due to a joint venture with Altech and an OEM agreement with Dainippon Screen for design and packaging products.
For about ten years, BPS sales in Japan have been entrusted to a local distributor, selling video projectors ( BARCOVISION series ) to the consumer market, data & graphics projectors ( BARCODATA & BARCOGRAPHICS series ) to system builders, as well as renting LCD projectors.
BDS sells its high end monitors through a distinct japanese distributor.
Last spring, a Liaison Office ( one person ) was opened in Tokyo.
To better take advantage of the development of potential markets, it has just been decided to start a subsidiary in Tokyo, with a branch in Osaka. To achieve this, an agreement was reached with the local distributor to have staff from one of its four divisions (7 people out of 72 ) transfered to the new facilities of BARCO CO, Ltd(BCL).
The new subsidiary was incorporated in October 1995, with a total investment of 300 million Yen. Including the administrative staff, BCL will employ 15 people (among those, two Belgians ) in Tokyo (Shinjuku) snd will start operations on January 1, 1996.
BCL will concentrate its activities on the presentation market by taking over the main customers of the former distributor, which becomes a dealer. BCL will then take care of the dealer network and monitor the OEM agreement with Matsushita.
Markets to be developed are the high end presentation market, the process control & simulation markets....
The japanese projection market is the second largest for BPS. However, the market is not only important because of its volume: it is also the market of some of our suppliers and competitors.
Furthermore, high added value applications in the field of simulation and process control, necessitating extensive engineering support, might be developed in the near future. As a consequence, to provide adequate technical support and consulting, we ought to be close to our customers.
Our main challenge in Japan will probably be, in a first stage, to deal with numerous competitors, to cover geographically the whole country and to comply with the very demanding (technical and service) requirements of our japanese customers.
BARCO Co, Ltd Takada 3-32-1 Toshima-ku, Tokyo-Japan Tel: 81-3-5950-8100 Fax: 81-3-5950-8108 Contact People: Mr Philippe Huysveld & Jean Waucquez or: BARCO Projection Systems Noordlaan 5, Industriezone B-8520 Kuurne-Belgium Tel: 32-56-368211 Fax: 32-56-368205 Contact People: Mr Blair Parkin & Tom Vanthuyne