Vestas Wind Systems A/S - Introduction

Introduction

Smed Sorensens Vej 5
Ringkobing DK-6950
Denmark
Telephone: +45 96 75 25 75
Fax: +45 96 75 24 36
Web site: http://www.vestas.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1928 as Dansk Staalvindue Industri
Employees: 9,504
Sales: EUR 2.54 billion ($2.9 billion) (2004)
Stock Exchanges: Copenhagen
Ticker Symbol: VVS
NAIC: 333611 Turbine and Turbine Generator Set Unit Manufacturing

Vestas Wind Systems A/S is the world leader in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of aeolian power generation systems—in other words, windmills. The company develops and manufactures its own proprietary wind turbine technologies, selling a range of products from the bare turbine components to complete turnkey systems, and even entire wind farms. Vestas has been riding the winds of change since the end of the 20th century, as the reduction of global pollution has taken on a greater urgency, and as more and more governments have begun mandating the installation of clean and renewable energy sources. Vestas is also a global manufacturer, with headquarters in Ringkobing, Denmark, and production facilities in the United States, Australia, Germany, Sweden, India, and elsewhere. In 2005, the company began construction on a production facility in Tianjin, China, marking its entry into that market. The company is the world leader, with a 40 percent market share. More than 70 percent of revenues, which topped EUR 2.5 billion in 2004, are generated in Europe, and the United States accounts for most of the rest. Vestas is one of the wind turbine industry's primary innovators, with projects including the development of turnkey offshore wind platforms. In 2003, the company handed over its first major offshore platform, at Horns Reef, in the North Sea off the Danish coast. Although Vestas stems from a blacksmith business founded at the beginning of the 20th century, its entry into wind turbines came in the late 1970s, and only became its core operation in the mid-1980s. Vestas is listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange.