Depo Inaugurates New Global Sales Office in Downtown Taipei, Eyes Annual Revenue of NT$20 B. in 5 Years

To overcome insufficient work space and fully prepare for foreseeable business expansion, Depo Auto Parts Ind. Co. Ltd., the world's largest supplier of aftermarket (AM) replacement auto lamps by revenue and product range, recently moved its global sales headquarters out of downtown Taipei.

At the ceremony held at the new office in mid-March, H.M. Hsu, Depo's chairman , announced his group's ambitious goal: to achieve annual consolidated revenue of NT$20 billion (US$666.7 million) within the next five years. In 2013, Depo registered global consolidated revenue of NT$13.6 billion (US$453.3 million).

Depo, a listed Taiwanese company, is one of the top-20 brand names of Taiwan and currently supplies over 25,000 models of auto lamps, making it the most comprehensive supplier of its kind. Annually investing in new-production development about NT$1 billion (US$33.3 million), the maker launches on average 500 to 600 new product models every year.

The new Taipei sales office occupies total floor area of about 2,000 square meters, with three video conference rooms for real-time meeting with global customers. Michael Hu, Depo's global sales manager, points out that currently his sales team has more than 40 people, but will soon exceed 70. "Depo will continue to concentrate on sales of core products including auto lamps and side-mirrors, rather than stepping into parts-trading, which requires many more staff dealing with purchase-related work," says Hu.

Ambitious Goal

Depo aims to achieve the NT$20 billion annual revenue goal with continual production-capacity expansion in Taiwan and China, Hu explains, with original equipment (OE) auto-lamp production and sales to be major revenue drivers.

Hu attributes his company's eye-catching revenue in 2013 to increased sales of high-level auto lamps (for luxury cars) in major markets such as Europe and the U.S. Currently, Depo's auto lamps are sold in about 190 nations.

"Sales of OE auto lamps will be Depo's next-stage focal-point development," Hu points out. "Currently, OE sales account only about 5% of our overall revenue, but we have mapped out an ambitious goal to raise its annual revenue to about NT$2.5 billion (US$83.3 million) over the next five years. For that, Depo has bought  90,000 square-meters of land in the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, central Taiwan, and will soon kick off constructing a factory focusing on turning out OE lamps for global automakers. In the future, we aim to become a major international Tier-1 auto-lamp supplier, in addition to the No. 1 AM player."

Hu discloses that several OE cooperation projects are under discussions to see a degree of finalization in the near future.

Capacity Expansion

Currently in Taiwan, Depo operates two factories, including one in the group headquarters in Lukang, central Taiwan and another in Hsinying, southern Taiwan, with  employee number totaling about 2,800. In China, the firm operates four factories, including Kunshan, Danyang and Ningbo of Jiangsu Province), and Hefei of Anhui Province. The Ningbo factory, a joint venture with Chinese automaker Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., produces mainly OE auto lamps.

Depo also operates four warehouses in the U.S., in Illinois, California, New Jersey, and Georgia.

Depo employs about 3,600 people globally but will recruit more gradually in conjunction with steady business expansion.

At Depo's scheduled new factory in the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, there will be a "super warehouse" with an inventory space of 3,000 HQ containers, and 63 docks, which will markedly shorten lead times.

About two years ago, Depo ventured into the side-mirror business to target mainly the U.S. market initially. Hu says that such business is also expected to further expand.