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the
interview
market share or growing the
market?
"It is growing the market. I actual-
ly do not care about market share
to be honest. It is easy to gain
market share, because you can buy
it. I do not care if I am number
5 or number 6 in an IMS report.
I want growth, but if the growth
is 7 or 10 per cent, I would
"We have a very strict distribu-
tion model. We only sell through
Mobotix authorised distributors.
We never go direct, but we try to
help the distributors to train and
educate system integrators and
end users as much as we possibly
can."
What is most important, gaining
ceed in China and India. I do not
believe that is the case."
Which are your major markets?
"25 per cent of our sales are in
Germany. USA is our second big-
gest market and we are growing
rapidly in Asia. We also have some
tremendous growth in regions that
are affected by the Euro crises."
Are you growing faster inter-
nationally rather than on the
domestic market? Why?
"Yes we are. We have growth in
Germany but we are growing faster
internationally. Basically, our focus
has been on growing internation-
ally. We have put more resources
into that, both in terms of market-
ing and sales."
How would you describe
the German market for video
surveillance?
"We have just a few major players
on the German market but there
are also a lot of small local vendors.
Germany is an industrialised
country with good infrastructure
when it comes to cabling, which
means, it is not easy to gain market
share here. For new companies
coming in it is difficult. The Ger-
man market is not one of these
countries where low cost Asian
manufacturers can come in and
make good money. Germans are
used to quality and are prepared to
pay a premium price."
How is Mobotix positioned
in the market right now?
"We are positioned in the high-end
segment. We do not have a single
product that is under 1 megapixel.
Right now we are in the segment of
3 to 5 megapixels and image quality
is absolutely essential for Mobotix."
How would you describe your
business model?
Ralf Hinkel started Mobotix in
1999. Since then the IP camera
manufacturer, well known for its
high resolution, hemispheric secu-
rity cameras, has grown to become
an 82 million Euro revenue busi-
ness. Three years ago, Ralf Hinkel
started to look for his successor.
Magnus Ekerot was hired as CSO
in 2011 and since 1 October, he is
the new CEO of Mobotix.
Magnus, how will Mobotix
develop with you as CEO?
"We will become more commer-
cialised and more international.
We will continue to maintain
our strong focus on technology,
but will be aiming to make it
more understandable and acces-
sible to customers around the
world, allowing them to see it as
a non-complicated product. We
will continue to focus on high
resolution picture quality and the
decentralised concept. I have four
key phrases: organic growth, geo-
graphical expansion, operational
excellence and market driven
product development."
Mobotix has been growing
very fast, do you expect it to
continue?
"Yes, I do. But the volume will
never take priority over the value.
Mobotix and our partners must
make money, because the money
is invested into developing new
projects. Creating good margins
for both Mobotix and our partners
is the biggest value for us. But I
believe that growth will continue
due to the geographical expansion
that we are experiencing right
now."
What regions are you
expanding to?
"We are looking at Asia and South
America. People say you need to
have a low cost product to suc-
NewMobotixCEO:
"Wewillbecomemoreinternational"
Fast growing German IP camera manufacturer Mo-
botix has employed Magnus Ekerot as its new CEO. In
this interview with detektor, Magnus ekerot stresses
that with him at the helm, Mobotix will become com-
mercialised and more international.
By Henrik Söderlund
Magnus Ekerot, new Mobotix CEO.