Danish tech company expands PH operations

MANILA, Philippines–Danish firm Sonion is set to increase the output of its manufacturing facilities in the Philippines and Vietnam by as much as 40 percent this year, to prepare for a potential increase in the demand for its products.

In the Philippines, Sonion is expected to use the second floor of the factory while the Vietnam facility will be expanded by another 2,600 square meters.

Local units in these two countries are already preparing for the construction, which will begin shortly, the company said in a statement dated March 3.

“With the added floor space we will be able to accommodate and grow our production capacity for the future,” Sonion said.

The Sonion Group, a leading provider of technology solutions to the hearing aid industry, has some 3,300 employees across facilities in Denmark, Poland, the Netherlands, United States, China, the Philippines and Vietnam.

In the Philippines, Sonion invested in 2013 some $30 million (roughly P1.29 billion) in its factory inside the First Philippine Industrial Park in Sto. Tomas, Batangas.

This facility manufactures balanced armature receivers and high-end microphones, modules for hearing instruments, and high-precision tools for plastic molding of parts for electromechanical components.

All products are exported from the Batangas factory, which was at one time the most complex Sonion facility since it housed all the company’s competencies under one roof.

During the inauguration of the facility in 2013, Sonion Group president and CEO Jorn Morkeberg already sounded off plans to expand the company’s operations as it had a remaining area of about 17,000 sqm, apart from the 11,500-sqm block where the existing facility is located.

Morkeberg earlier noted that the Philippines was the preferred site by the company’s parent firm in Denmark due to the “generally high educational level of the workforce” and “reasonable infrastructure” in the country.

He also cited the competitive incentives given to foreign investors, as well as the “warm welcome” and good cooperation that Sonion had received from the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza).

The Sonion facility in Batangas employed 466 personnel as of December 2014.