Flex sees stable revenue growth, footprint expansion in Malaysia
22 Mar 2022
Footprint expansion in Malaysia seems inevitable for manufacturing and technology solutions provider, Flex Ltd, considering its projected stable double-digit revenue growth for the next three years.
Senior vice-president of Asia Global Operations Lai Teng Yen said the United States-based company, which established its Malaysian operations in 1988, is reaping the benefits of regionalisation as well as the matured supply chain here.
“We are well-positioned in Batu Kawan with a lot of high-end corporate customers also setting up facilities within the vicinity. Furthermore, the infrastructure here is matured with world-class ports, airports and land transportations that are all well-connected.
“Regionalisation and Malaysia being a part of ASEAN are also another facet of the growth rate we are seeing. We expect Flex to continue to be busy here over the next two to three years,” he told a media briefing on the company’s operations in Malaysia here, today.
In terms of overall revenue, he said Flex recorded between US$24 billion (US$1=RM4.21) and US$26 billion per annum, out of which 45 per cent are derived from the company’s Asian operations.
On footprint expansion, Lai said the company is looking at two approaches that would not require heavy investment, namely uplifting its current facilities to create more space within the factory or inviting its business partners to invest in Malaysia.
“We have come to a tipping point where our current suppliers are not sufficient to sustain the growth rate we are seeing for the next two to three years, which means, we may also need to invite our business partners to invest in Malaysia.
“We will be discussing about this with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) and this will be an indirect investment by Flex in the industry,” he said.
Meanwhile, Flex Penang vice-president of operations Viswanathan Paramasivam said footprint expansion is constantly being discussed by the company given the tremendous growth opportunities.
“We anticipate annual revenue to grow between 24 per cent and 28 per cent at least for the next two to three years, therefore, we will need to expand to cater to this growth.
“We have a piece of empty land here and we are discussing on how to develop it as well as to optimise all of our other facilities,” he added.
Flex helps design and build products for its customers in various industries such as automotive, cloud, communications, consumer devices, healthcare, and industrial, with facilities in over 30 countries.
In Malaysia, it has 11 facilities across Johor, Penang and Selangor with products manufactured including servers, complex ethernet switches, audio products, and advanced medical equipment.
Source: Bernama
