The news follows the announcement Bosch Group opened a sales and service subsidiary in Nairobi, Kenya in February this year.
Huge potential
Friedbert Klefenz, president, Bosch Packaging Technology, told FoodProductionDaily it opened the office two weeks ago and the chances that it will open another one soon in Africa and Asia are ‘very high’.
“We want to strategically increase our footprint in emerging markets such as Africa and Asia,” said Klefenz.
“We opened our first office in South Africa in Johannesburg, in 2012, followed by a sales and service office in Cairo, Egypt in July the same year. Bosch opens one or two offices every year and we plan to announce more at the end of the year.
“Given the rapid growth of Africa's population, a very low average age, and the increasing purchasing power of a growing middle class, the company sees huge potential for growth in Africa.”
World Economic report
According to a United Nations 2014 report ‘World Economic Situation & Prospects’ the population growth in Africa is expected to accelerate from 4.0% in 2013 to 4.7% in 2014.
Other factors for Africa’s medium-term growth prospects include increasing domestic demand, especially from a growing class of new consumers associated with urbanization and rising incomes, and improvements in economic governance and management.
A moderate global growth recovery in 2014, underpinned by growth in industrial production in emerging and developing regions, led by China, and projected faster growth in developed countries should stimulate growth in Africa through increased trade, investment and capital flows.
“The biggest challenge right now is finding the best people to work in these markets,” added Klefenz.
“We need to find the right people, not only in Europe and America but in emerging countries like Asia and Africa who meet our standards. We rely on working with the best people in the industry and we always look to recruit either through our own network program, by visiting universities or through our in-house apprenticeship scheme.
“Bosch promotes talented young people in sub-Saharan Africa, and is one of the initiators of “Afrika kommt!”, a German business program for junior executives from sub-Saharan Africa.”
Afrika kommt
As part of “Afrika kommt!”, Bosch Group (together with 20 other companies) has been offering scholarships to African junior executives so that they can spend a year in Germany completing a professional training program since 2008.
“Nowadays all the big companies are in competition with one another. It’s a matter of communicating and telling people about the advantages of working with Bosch. We also offer woman mentorship programs and we have one in May.”
The next women@TechnikVision event is on May 16, 2014, when Bosch will invite all female future engineers and scientists to its plant in Reutlingen, Germany, to show them what it does at the factory and how women can find a career with the company.