What Japanese Equipment Manufacturers Can Teach Us About Europe Strategy

Ten Companies That Built a Presence in Europe — and What We Can Learn from Their “Put Down Roots, Don’t Just Sell” Approach

Japanese equipment manufacturers that perform strongly in Europe tend to share one defining trait: they do not see Europe simply as an export destination. Instead of limiting themselves to sales subsidiaries, they have shifted core business functions to Europe itself, including manufacturing, logistics, technical validation, training, and even R&D. Even a quick look at publicly available information from companies such as FANUC, Yaskawa, OMRON, and Tokyo Electron shows that their European track record is built not merely on sales volume, but on the depth of their supply systems, technology centers, training hubs, and collaborative development activities.

In this article, we use ten companies — FANUC, Yaskawa, Daifuku, OMRON, Okuma, Makino, FUJI, Ishida, Tokyo Electron, and SCREEN — as reference points to examine how Japanese equipment manufacturers build a lasting presence in Europe. The focus here is not on market-share rankings. What matters instead is what can be confirmed through official websites, official releases, and official case studies: local footprints, technical support capabilities, training structures, implementation outcomes, and the depth of joint development. Viewed from that angle, the essence of a Europe strategy is not simply “setting up sales offices,” but rather “how much capability a company is willing to place close to its customers.”

When Supply Gets Closer, Trust Gets Closer Too

FANUC is perhaps the clearest example of this. FANUC is a manufacturer of factory automation equipment, including industrial robots, CNCs (numerical control systems for machine tools), ROBODRILL machining centers, and ROBOCUT wire EDM machines. FANUC Europe was established in 1978, and its European headquarters have been located in Luxembourg since 1986. It operates a European manufacturing center in Echternach and a European logistics center in Contern, supporting more than 20 subsidiaries across Europe. Yet the company’s strength in Europe is not simply a matter of footprint. In France, Joseph Martin still operates the first ROBOCUT it installed in 1990, and FANUC uses this case to demonstrate that its value lies in long equipment life and long-term service support. In Europe, trust is measured less by the number of installations than by how many decades a machine continues to run.

Yaskawa has chosen a similar path. Yaskawa is an automation manufacturer producing motion-control equipment such as industrial robots, servo motors, and inverters. Today, Yaskawa Europe reports a structure of roughly 2,000 employees across EMEA, with offices in 21 countries and five production sites. In 2023, it opened a new European headquarters in Hattersheim. That facility, backed by an investment of around €23 million, includes office space for about 220 people, a 1,150-square-meter European training center, and a 206-square-meter innovation center. In addition, the company’s robot factory in Kočevje, Slovenia, is positioned by Yaskawa itself as a core pillar of its European strategy. In Europe, Yaskawa increasingly looks less like a company that simply delivers machines and more like one helping European manufacturers build the foundation of automation itself.

Daifuku’s expansion in Europe is equally instructive. Daifuku is a manufacturer of material handling systems, including automated warehouses, conveyors, and sorting systems for logistics and intrafactory transport. The company states that it has been operating in Europe since 1986, and Daifuku Europe GmbH, headquartered in Germany, now also has bases in the UK, Denmark, and Sweden, covering sales, engineering, installation, and after-sales service. What matters here is not only that Daifuku sells automated storage and conveying systems, but that it presents European projects as operational improvement programs. In the Portwest case, for example, the introduction of a Mini Load AS/RS increased picking productivity by a factor of ten, doubled warehouse capacity, and enabled work to be upgraded through redeployment rather than workforce reduction. What Europe values is not a simple labor-saving story, but a story about improving how work is done. This case makes that especially clear.

In Europe, You Need to “Test Together” Before You Sell

The second strategic theme is deep engagement with the customer’s process. OMRON’s European approach is a textbook example. OMRON is a manufacturer of industrial automation equipment, including sensors, PLCs, vision systems, controllers, and robots. The company has placed Automation Centers and Proof of Concept Labs (PoCs) throughout EMEA, explicitly positioning them as links between global and local development, production, and sales networks. These PoC sites are spread across locations such as Budapest, Stuttgart, Barcelona, Hoofddorp, Dortmund, and Tychy, allowing customers to bring in their own production conditions and validate the feasibility of robotics, vision, and automation in advance. These are not showrooms. They are mechanisms designed by the equipment supplier to reduce the customer’s investment risk before a purchase is made. In Europe, companies that are chosen are often the ones that provide a place to test before they try to sell.

In the machine tool world, Okuma presents an even more developed version of the same idea. Okuma is a machine tool manufacturer producing CNC lathes, machining centers, and multitasking machines. Okuma Europe is headquartered in Krefeld, Germany, and operates Tech Centres there as well as in Langenau and Parndorf. These sites are designed as places where customers can bring real machining challenges and work through solutions together with Okuma’s machine, service, and sales teams. In addition, the Engineering Centre opened in 2020 spans around 1,200 square meters, supports up to 20 machines, and handles the integration of local peripheral equipment, automation solutions, and hands-on training. In Europe, selling machine tools is not about presenting machine specifications. It is about building the most suitable production setup for the customer’s process, and Okuma’s site configuration tells that story clearly.

Makino, too, treats Europe as a market that demands close technical engagement. Makino is a machine tool manufacturer producing high-precision machining centers and EDM machines. Makino states that it has four technology centers and eight regional structures in Europe, with its headquarters in Kirchheim unter Teck and technical bases extending into Italy, Slovakia, France, and Spain. The European organization has around 250 employees, with a strong emphasis on marketing, sales, application engineering, and service. The company has also systematized application training and service training, extending even into workforce development on the shop floor through programs such as “Certified Makino User.” In Europe, competition extends beyond the machine itself to the question of how to build a shop floor that can truly use the machine well, and Makino’s structure makes that reality unmistakable.

The Point Is Not “How Many Units Were Sold,” but “What Changed”

The third strategic theme is the ability to show customer outcomes in concrete terms. FUJI EUROPE has been active in the European market from its Kelsterbach base since 1991, with around 90 employees covering sales, service, spare-parts warehousing, Customer Process Support, logistics, and order processing. FUJI is a manufacturer of electronic assembly equipment, including SMT placement machines used to mount components on printed circuit boards. According to its official site, it has more than 300 customers in Europe. What stands out is how it presents its achievements. In a 2025 case study, FUJI reported that after the introduction of NXTIII and AIMEXIII systems at Productware, annual production volume increased from approximately 99,000 boards to around 370,000, and order intake doubled. FUJI does not focus solely on machine speed. Instead, it highlights how the customer’s production capacity, precision, and flexibility changed. In Europe’s B2B markets, what is powerful is not a story told through specifications, but a story told through results.

Ishida Europe is equally European in this sense. Ishida is a food machinery manufacturer producing weighing machines, packaging machines, and inspection systems for food production lines. The company promotes integrated line solutions, designing weighing, packaging, and inspection not as standalone units but as complete lines, and backing them up with after-sales service, training, spare parts supply, and remote diagnostics. Ishida also states that many of its quality-control machines are designed and manufactured for EMEA at its Birmingham facility in the UK. On the support side, it emphasizes a 24/7 engineer response system and spare-parts supply from warehouses in Europe and the UK. Its presentation of results is equally clear. In the Faccenda Foods case in the UK, Ishida explained that product giveaway fell by about 30% after system implementation, while throughput per operator also improved. In other words, Ishida has established its position in Europe not merely as a packaging-machine supplier, but as a yield-improvement partner for food factories.

Turning Europe into a Frontline for R&D and Lifecycle Support

The fourth strategic theme is using Europe as a frontline for research and development. Tokyo Electron Europe, established in 1994, stated in its 2025 company overview that it has five companies, 18 locations, and more than 800 employees across nine European countries. Tokyo Electron is a manufacturer of semiconductor production equipment, including coaters/developers, etchers, and deposition systems. In addition, the company opened a Training Centre in Santry, Ireland, in 2022, featuring four tool training rooms and three classrooms, and positioning it as the only TEL facility of its kind in Europe. Most importantly, however, is TEL’s long-term collaboration with imec in Belgium. TEL and imec have worked together since 1995, and in 2025 they extended their partnership for another five years, targeting development beyond the 2nm node. Rather than simply placing sales offices in Europe, TEL is helping create next-generation processes together with European research institutions. That is what gives its European strategy real weight.

SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions shows an even stronger lifecycle-support orientation in Europe. SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions is a manufacturer of semiconductor production equipment, centered on wafer cleaning systems. SCREEN established its first German subsidiary in Hamburg in 1978, later moved through Düsseldorf, and relocated its headquarters to Ismaning/Munich in 2016. Today, SCREEN SPE Germany serves as an EMEA-wide sales, marketing, engineering, and service organization, with four branch companies and five major local offices. Its corporate history also notes that it began the first production of semiconductor equipment outside Japan in Düsseldorf in 1998, opened the Munich Refurbishment Center and a key service office in Dresden in 2005, and expanded into a new refurbishment center supporting 300mm tools in 2017. To survive in the European market over the long term, a manufacturer must be able to handle not only new equipment sales, but also refurbishment, renewal, and lifetime extension locally. SCREEN’s history illustrates that reality exceptionally well.

What These Ten Companies Reveal About the Essence of a Europe Strategy

Taken together, these ten companies suggest that Japanese equipment manufacturers that build a real presence in Europe tend to share five ways of thinking. First, they bring supply and service inside Europe. Second, they create PoC and technical-validation environments rather than mere showrooms. Third, they present success through customer outcomes rather than equipment specifications. Fourth, they treat training and education as value on par with the product itself. Fifth, they maintain capabilities that allow them to remain in the European market over the long term, including joint research and refurbishment. These may appear to be separate tactics, but in practice they all converge on a single objective: reducing the distance to the customer.

Put differently, what determines success in Europe is not whether a product is made in Japan. What matters is whether, from the customer’s point of view, the manufacturer has become an entity capable of solving local problems, on a local timeline, in a local language. FANUC’s long-life installations, Yaskawa’s European headquarters and production base, OMRON’s PoCs, the technology centers of Okuma and Makino, Daifuku’s operational-improvement projects, the outcome-based storytelling of FUJI and Ishida, TEL’s collaboration with imec, and SCREEN’s refurbishment strategy — all of these are concrete steps that transformed exporters into European-local players. Ultimately, what Japanese equipment manufacturers can teach us about Europe strategy is not how to increase the number of destinations they sell into, but how to embed their functions into Europe’s industrial fabric itself.

Referrence

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Ten Companies That Built a Presence in Europe — and What We Can Learn from Their “Put Down Roots, Don’t Just Sell” Approach

When Supply Gets Closer, Trust Gets Closer Too

In Europe, You Need to “Test Together” Before You Sell

The Point Is Not “How Many Units Were Sold,” but “What Changed”

Turning Europe into a Frontline for R&D and Lifecycle Support

What These Ten Companies Reveal About the Essence of a Europe Strategy

Referrence

FANUC

Yaskawa

OMRON

Okuma

Makino

FUJI

Daifuku

Ishida

Tokyo Electron

SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions

Planning a factory project in Europe?

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