Profile and history

APEM, a world of switching capabilities

APEM is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of professional switches and switch panels. With subsidiaries, agents and distributors in numerous countries, APEM achieves 67 % of its turnover from export markets.
APEM designs, develops, manufactures and sells professional switch products to customers in such dynamic markets as electronics, telecommunications, military, automotive, instrumentation, medical electronics and the computer industry. The APEM group employs more than one thousand employees, half of them located in international subsidiaries and native of the country where they work. The company, listed on the secondary market of the Paris Stock Exchange, supplies more than 10,000 customers world-wide.

History

• APEM was created in 1952 in Montpezat de Quercy, France, for the manufacture of industrial switches.
• From 1976, the Company began a strategy of international development and created new subsidiaries in Europe.
• In 1983, APEM COMPONENTS Ltd. was created in Long Crendon, Bucks.
• In 1984, APEM opened a new plant in France specialising in the production of switch panels to complement its product range.
• In 1991, it purchased AMERICAN SWITCH CORP. in Boston (USA) and created a subsidiary, APEM COMPONENTS Inc., to achieve a solid presence in the North American market.
• In 1998, 1999 and 2000 APEM acquired the following companies:
  - MEC, a Danish manufacturer of high quality P.C.B mounting tactile push button switches.
  - WUJIN, near Shangai, to create APEM (Wujin) Electronic, the Chinese subsidiary and operational base for APEM's expansion into the Pacific Rim.
  - QWERTEC in France, CONCEPT KEYBOARDS Ltd. in the U.K. and UNIFAB in the USA, to expand its switch panel range.
• In 2000 and 2002, APEM created 2 new subsidiaries, APEM Mexico and APEM Italia.
• In 2005, APEM Purchased OLIVER CONTROL SYSTEMS Ltd. in the UK. thus adding a broad portfolio of panel mounted industrial joysticks. These include switch, potentiometer and contactless joysticks.
• During 2006, APEM U.K. expanded its production capacity and now employs over 130 people in the U.K., with 5 production units in Winchester, Hants. and 1 production, warehousing  and head office unit in Long Crendon, Bucks.
• U.K. manufactured products now include industrial control switches, LED indicators, industrial joysticks and switchpanels/membrane keypads.