The CEO of the SECO/WARWICK Group — Sławomir Woźniak — is celebrating a milestone anniversary — it has been 5 years since he took over the management of a global organization with companies and representative offices on several continents and offering solutions under these strong brands: SECO/WARWICK, Retech and SECO/VACUUM. How has the Group changed during this time? Has it managed to achieve all its goals? And to whom does SECO/WARWICK owe its success?
Is a five-year-period a good time to sum up?
Sławomir Woźniak, CEO SECO/WARWICK: It is a round, symbolic anniversary, but honestly, I don’t attach much importance to it. I think five years is a sufficient period to determine whether the company is heading in the right direction.
When I became President of the Management Board in 2019, I had just returned to Poland after several years of running the SECO/WARWICK companies in Asia. I gained extensive experience there, which I could use in global structures. I am proud that over the years I have achieved the goals related to starting production in India and China, that our American companies are recording very large sales increases and are constantly developing, and finally, that we have survived a very difficult moment for the industry, i.e. the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent war outbreak in Ukraine. These events required decisive, quick actions on our part.
These two global events caused our team to completely reevaluate the business landscape and the approach to it. We decided to focus on providing services locally to reduce logistical costs, build our own independence, increase the safe delivery of our equipment, timeliness, and additionally to eliminate the risk of an interrupted supply chain.
The labor market has changed, the war caused rapid changes in the rare metal and raw material market, which in turn influenced the new approach to our goals and strategy. We redefined the direction of business development by working to improve competitiveness, and at the same time we always knew that the SECO/WARWICK Group’s development must be consistent with the direction set by the green transformation. For years, we have been adapting our offer to the industry’s key trends and to our customers’ expectations. Thanks to this, our solutions allow us to increase the heat treatment process efficiency and save on raw materials as well as the energy used in the processes.
We help our customers reduce the carbon footprint of their activities. For example, in the aviation industry we are faced with challenges resulting from the need to reduce the aircraft’s carbon footprint by reducing the machine weight, therefore more titanium is used in their production. Moreover, our solutions, thanks to the technologies used, allow for the effective recycling of titanium, which is a very valuable resource. Induction or plasma furnaces under our brand enjoy high interest and recognition among customers. We also focused on innovative technologies, e.g. plasma powder production technology, as well as the development of the product segment for the defense and energy industries. The aftermarket activity development is also worth mentioning — high-quality service, maintenance work and ensuring the availability of spare parts are one of our industry pillars. We are building this area very intensively and nowadays it is an important part of our business.
Today we can say that we have emerged unscathed from a difficult period for the global industry, strengthening our position as one of the leaders in the global market for metals and metallurgy heat treatment equipment. At the same time, we skillfully use the opportunities arising from the transformation of the economy, which is why I believe that we are well prepared to compete on the market in the long term.
What do you consider your greatest success during this period?
S.W.: I think that the SECO/WARWICK Group is constantly developing year by year. Both in terms of sales revenues generated, but also profitability, expansion of sales markets, number of employees and, finally, the innovative technologies that we implement. It is worth remembering that development is not a matter of speed, but of direction.
It looks like we chose the direction very well. Today, the SECO/WARWICK Group includes companies located on three continents in five countries. There are over 4,000 implemented solutions in five product areas. The company today employs over 850 employees, of which approximately 60% are engineers, owns two R&D centers (in Poland and the United States), and serves customers from over 70 countries around the world. I am proud to say that SECO/WARWICK is one of the global leaders in heat treatment and metallurgy technologies.
I am also extremely proud of how SECO/WARWICK approaches the issue of green transformation. Our product teams, R&D departments, and production team work to implement our mission of creating pro-ecological solutions for our customers. At the same time, the entire Group pursues goals related to reducing its carbon footprint in everyday life. The Group’s employees are strongly involved in this important idea and undertake numerous initiatives in the field of corporate social responsibility, e.g. planting new forests together.
What milestones, which influenced the current SECO/WARWICK Group position now would you mention?
S.W.: There is certainly a focus on the technologies — process development and standardization. Vacuum furnaces are very standardized products. This allows for a greater focus towards tailor-made products. Importantly, they are equipped with solutions opening the green door to heavy industry.
The second important decision was to invest in CAB technology and create a product brand (EV/CAB) dedicated to the electric vehicle sector. Our continuous aluminum soldering lines operate at almost all key manufacturers of electric vehicle components. We now produce them in Asia, which has significantly shortened delivery times and reduced costs.
It was undoubtedly important to implement the Group’s development strategy for 2023-2026. It assumes at least double-digit revenue growth in each of our segments by 2026, and even triple-digit growth in some of them, so the plan is very ambitious. We assume that thanks to strategic initiatives, in 2026 it will be possible to achieve the Group’s total revenues of over PLN 980 million (while in 2023 we achieved a turnover of PLN 684 million) and the highest growth should be achieved in the vacuum metallurgy (VME) segment. We also assume an increase in results proportional to sales. The first year of our work under the new strategy, i.e. 2023, brought a 10% increase in revenues compared to 2022. We are working to at least maintain this trend in the coming years.
For many years you worked in the Group’s structures in China and India, what has changed over the years?
S.W.: In 2011, I became the managing director of the company in China. My goal was to create internal structures and a sales force that would operate perfectly on the Asian market. The key was to hire the right people who knew the region’s business culture and to build a team. A few years later, I carried out a similar task in India. Today in China we have a factory with two assembly halls and the ability to work in many technologies, and in India we have recently started production, after several years of successful implementation of the sales & service business. We have also conducted extensive training aimed at providing unified SECO/WARWICK products, regardless of the region of the world in which they are manufactured.
SECO/WARWICK’s strength is, on the one hand, globality and a uniform high level of know-how for the entire Group, and at the same time, locality understood as the ability to adapt to the local market needs, also in the business communication field. Today, the Chinese branch can produce 20 CAB lines, 8-10 VAC vacuum furnaces and 2-3 VME vacuum metallurgy furnaces per year. Both of our production plants in China are 10,000 m2, so we have doubled the area in the last year. We are also systematically increasing employment to meet production challenges. In India, we started the production of continuous aluminum brazing lines and vacuum solutions, meeting the demand for these furnaces in this part of the world.
Five years, theoretically, is not much, but looking at how we have spread our wings in Asia during this time, you might think that light years have passed.
What does the American market look like?
S.W.: All three American companies belonging to the SECO/WARWICK Group have increased the area of their facilities, the number of employees and their sales over the last few years. The first half of 2024 was exceptionally intense for American companies, because we saw a very large increase in industrial activity in this part of the world. Last year, the American market accounted for 37% of the SECO/WARWICK Group’s sales. All three companies are currently expanding their capacities, enlarging production halls and warehouse areas. We also opened a branch in Mexico to reach Partners from Latin America more effectively.
What does the SECO/WARWICK Group’s future look like?
S.W.: In 2019, the SECO/WARWICK Group’s sales amounted to PLN 452 million (EUR 105 million). In 2023, we generated revenues higher by over 51%, i.e. PLN 684 million (EUR 151 million). The long-term goal, of course, is to further increase revenues, profits and profitability. For years, we have been transferring funds to our Shareholders in the form of dividends or buy-backs, which shows that we are a stable and reliable company.
At the same time, we do not stop investing, on the contrary, we even increase our expenditures on innovations — we develop new technologies, new furnace product lines and new functionalities. When it comes to the future, we also focus on automation, robotization and artificial intelligence, i.e. we are creating Industry 4.0. Our goal is to offer our Partners furnaces that are as maintenance-free as possible. We introduce remote inspection and repair systems. We also use tools to optimize the furnace operation, which is based on advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, so that the furnaces we produce are even more effective, efficient and ecological.
Ecology, including reducing emissions and building a circular economy, are topics which will have an increasing impact on the industry in the coming years. We try to anticipate these trends by working in our R&D departments on solutions which protect our planet and increase the efficiency and economics of processes for our customers.
Your professional path is entirely related to SECO/WARWICK — this is extremely rare…
S.W.: Indeed, I started working at SECO/WARWICK with an apprenticeship as an electrician, and when I graduated, I became a service engineer. After separating from the CAB product segment, I was the deputy manager of the CAB plant, and from 2005, the CAB plant’s Director. Then I went to China and India, where I managed the Group’s local companies. In 2018, I became Vice-President of the SECO/WARWICK S.A. Management Board and Operations Director of the SECO/WARWICK Group, and a year later I took over as CEO.
