Schneider Electric opens East Asia and Japan headquarters in Singapore

FRENCH energy management and automation company Schneider Electric opened its East Asia and Japan headquarters in Singapore on Thursday.

The headquarters, located at 50 Kallang Avenue, will consolidate the company's Singapore operations at four other offices in Changi, Penjuru, Ang Mo Kio and Ayer Rajah. It will also serve as the company's first Innovation Hub in Asia.

The nine-storey building has a gross floor area of over 18, 500 square metres. Schneider Electric spent S$23 million to retrofit the building, so that it can be powered by a hybrid electricity power source, with solar panels installed both onsite and offsite. BT reported in 2015 the company said that it will invest S$102 million into its Singapore operations over the next five years.

The Innovation Hub will also bring together software engineers, solution architects and research scientists, who will work on the company's Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled system architecture and platform, EcoStruxure.

Additionally, the company is setting up a machine solutions research and development (R&D) team to deepen its R&D capabilities and expertise. It will be one of the company's four such teams globally. The building can house over 1,200 employees.

Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chairman and chief executive of Schneider Electric, said: "This opening reaffirms our commitment to East Asia and Japan as key markets for our business, and signifies the growth opportunities that we see in the region."