Teradyne's robotics group brings in $404M in 2022

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A UR20 collaborative robot lifting a box onto a partially built pallet.

Universal Robots reported its highest annual revenue to date in 2022. | Source: Universal Robots

Teradyne announced it brought in $3.15 billion in revenue in FY 2022. This marks the company’s second-biggest year in history, following 2021. Its Industrial Automation Group, which includes Universal Robots (UR), Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), and Energid, brought in $404 million.

This is a $28 million increase from the $376 million it brought in during 2021. In 2022, UR brought in $326 million, while MiR brought in $77 million.

“We delivered better than expected results in the fourth quarter on higher revenue and gross margins and lower expenses than planned,” Teradyne CEO Mark Jagiela said in a release. “Increased shipments of our Eagle products serving the automotive and industrial chip markets combined with stronger demand for UR cobots in the quarter drove the improved results.”

UR brought in $85 million in revenue in Q4 2022, slightly down from the $97 million it brought in during Q4 of 2021, but still resulting in a record-high year for the company for the second year in a row. UR saw a 5% increase in annual revenue from 2021 and a 12% growth on a constant currency basis.

“We are proud to have continued to grow our business despite facing a difficult macroeconomic environment in 2022,” Kim Andreasen, UR’s chief financial officer, said in a release. “We focused on those things we are able to control, and we overcame supply chain challenges to report our highest annual revenue to date.”

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Teradyne expects its Industrial Automation Group to continue to grow strongly in 2023. In 2022, the company began growth initiatives, including a channel transformation at UR, to gain traction. These growth initiatives also included supplementing its traditional distributor network with focused OEM channels.

The Industrial Automation Group will also likely see growth because of its recent product releases, like the higher-payload UR20, which expands its service market. The UR20 will ramp up production in 2023, particularly in the second half of the year.

“We invested last year in building world-class expertise in welding, palletizing and machine tending,” Kim Povlsen, UR’s president, said in a release. “We have also been working with our ecosystem partners to make automation easier for our customers than ever before. 2022 has been an important year for the company overall. We started construction on new headquarters, reached our 1000 employee milestone and launched a ground-breaking new cobot.”

MiR merged with AutoGuide Mobile Robots, another Teradyne subsidiary at the end of Q3 2022, with the integrated company officially being called Mobile Industrial Robots.

Prior to the merger, MiR offered a range of AMRs capable of carrying payloads and pallets up to 3,000 lb. (1350 kg). By combining with AutoGuide, the portfolio will expand to include high-payload AMR tuggers and forklifts operating on the MiRFleet software.

Teradyne expects the Industrial Automation Group to grow more than 20% in 2023, with much of that growth coming in the second half of the year.

The company’s market penetration for collaborative robots, including autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), is under 5%, leaving Teradyne with a lot of room for long-term growth. Teradyne is expecting its Industrial Automation Group to eventually make up 20% of the company’s entire sales.