F&B IndustriesAutomation > Specifications

Role of the specifications

In the food industry specifications related to the automation technology play an important and at the same time differentiated role.

Food industry highly concentrated

March 1st, 2010 - The food industry in Germany comprises approximately 6,000 companies with 500,000 employees according to offi cial statistics. This results in scarcely 100 employees per company. Thus a medium-sized industry?

 

The bar chart shows that 38% of the employees work in 8% of the companies. The 100 largest companies constitute only 1.7% of the companies with scarcely 21% of the employees, produce however 41% of the turnover of the food industry.

The concentration of companies and employees in the German food and beverage industry.
Source: Federal Statistical Office, Wiesbaden 2011.

Specifications widespread

In these large companies specifications determine the use of components of the automation technology at the machines. 79% of these large-scale enterprises have such specifications, 13% expressly none, 8% made no denominations.

Specifications are differentiated valid

But these specifications show different degrees of validity. This fact is substantial both for machine-builders and suppliers of automation technology.

The role of specifications in the German food and beverage industry.
Source: Market survey by Quest TechnoMarketing in the German food and beverage industry.

The bar chart shows that the imperative and non-imperative character of the specifications is approximately divided to fifty-fifty.