Chennai : REFUsol GmbH receives the Frost & Sullivan Growth Leadership Award. The technologically leading PV inverter manufacturer has been distinguished with this prize for the highest annual growth rates in the branch within the last three years. According to the reasoning of the jury of the international business consultancy, the growth rates of REFUsol within the last three years are notable and in 2010 were even many times greater than the average in the European inverter market. The award is presented annually by Frost & Sullivan.

In the past three years, REFUsol grew by around 150 percent and was able to greatly expand its market share. With a consistent market orientation, the company was able to achieve broad acceptance of REFUsol products throughout Europe and is today one of the top 3 inverter manufacturers in Europe.

Four success factors: innovations, fabless strategy, market orientation, internationalization

According to Frost & Sullivan, four success factors are responsible to a great extent for the growth of REFUsol: continuous innovation, fabless strategy, market orientation and internationalization

Innovative energy

REFUsol can look back on a strong background in power electronics, and innovations have always been a top priority. In this way the company has been able to build up a pool of knowledge over the years. String inverters and central inverters from 3kW to 1.3 MW today belong to the product portfolio. Not least due to the patented “UltraEta Topology”, inverters from REFUsol achieve up to 98.7 percent efficiency – one of the highest degrees of efficiency in the branch.

Fabless strategy

The focus at REFUsol is on technology development; at the company headquarters in Metzingen, more than half of the employees work in development. REFUsol implements a fabless strategy in order to be able to concentrate on this core competency. Production is outsourced to partners within the PRETTL Group, which belongs to REFUsol. Uniform production processes with identical equipment and testing instruments ensure uniform quality at all production locations. Every product is subjected to an identical, automated test run.

Market orientation

One of the most important success factors for REFUsol is its ability to identify market needs and derive business possibilities from these. Because the inverter market changes quickly and is strongly dependent upon geographical conditions, the offering of REFUsol must also adapt to this market. A consistent orientation to the requirements of the target market and offers tailored to customers in the respective countries are decisive here.

Internationalization

In order to meet the demand for photovoltaic installations in various countries, REFUsol relies on an international strategy that takes specific national characteristics into account and covers emerging regions. REFUsol has worldwide representation and also works together with production partners that are active on location. A global strategy unites development, sales and production, also in emerging regions such as China, India and Korea.

“We are very pleased to have been honored in this way by Frost & Sullivan”, says Norbert Frings, spokesman of the business management of REFUsol. “Our above average growth is the result of our manufacturing strategy, which is perfectly implemented in terms of logistics, the usage of state-of-the-art technologies and constant product innovations. We work together closely with our customers in order to be able to offer them technically pioneering products, which are tailored to their needs down to the smallest detail.”