ABB Low Voltage Drives earns Frost & Sullivan global leadership award

• Global growth consulting company cites ABB's "unsurpassable global market reach and presence," in conferring award

SAN ANTONIO, TX, Oct. 5, 2006 -- ABB on Sept. 26 earned the Frost & Sullivan "Growth Excellence in Market and Product Leadership of the Year Award, for 2006 Low Voltage Drives." Technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development were contingencies Frost & Sullivan included in its evaluation, noting that ABB's global Low Voltage Drives business unit has excelled across them all.

"In the drives space, this Award goes to the company that demonstrates excellence in the fields of technology and evident customer confidence, in terms of loyalty and service," said Frost & Sullivan research analyst Shibu S L. Frost & Sullivan reviews the more than 100 companies around the world offering drives, when determining the Award.

Global Reach and Presence Called Out in Award
When presenting the Award, Shibu S L noted, "This is in recognition of ABB LV Drives for its superior expertise in creating profit-impacting solutions across all end-user verticals, which enables the company to establish itself as a global leader -- with unsurpassable global market reach and presence." ABB has shown unmatched ability to pioneer technological innovation and leadership in penetrating newer markets, Shibu said, and "displayed a superlative ability to translate its consistent quality and technology focus into a customer-winning value proposition, via providing better life-cycle value for all its products globally."

Accepting the Award on behalf of ABB at the Hyatt Hill Country Resort here was Richard Hepperla, senior vice president and general manager of ABB Low Voltage Drives, North America. "ABB is particularly pleased with the Award because it is based on Frost and Sullivan's original research," he said.
"That research confirms that customers value ABB's focus on quality, technology, and support."

This kind of unsolicited Award, from a third party that knows the global landscape intimately, is highly motivating to management and employees, observed Roelof Timmer, marketing director for ABB Low Voltage Drives globally. "It gives us confidence that we are on the right track -- and reconfirms our commitment to serve our customers throughout markets around the world now, and in the years to come."

Award Celebrates an Ongoing Global Strategy
Such recognition highlights an initiative and aggressive growth strategy that has been underway for several years, noted Pekka Tiitinen, group vice president and head of ABB's global Low Voltage Drives business unit. "In recent years, ABB has been growing rapidly in the LV drives market," he said. "This growth has taken place in all regions ? both the emerging economies, and in established markets.

"For us, this is very important," he continued, "because it shows we are successful as a truly global company. We have a strong local sales organization in all the major markets, and we believe that this proximity to our customers is one of the foundations for our success." Such an award "encourages us to strengthen our global approach, and to invest, further, at this local level, that brings and keeps us close to customers."

Complete Drives Line for Marketplace
The company continues to earn the trust of prospects and customers, as evidenced by an increasing market share around the globe, Timmer noted. A customer-driven organization, ABB works tirelessly to understand the needs of drives users and convert them into feature-rich products that surpass customer expectations -- and make ABB's products the most compelling in the marketplace.

ABB is also distinguished in its commitment to serve customers with the most complete line of drives in the marketplace, including AC and DC drives.

Frost & Sullivan noted this distinction in their Award, as well. There are 30 to 40 niche DC drives companies that "are forced to invest a major amount of their revenues into research and development or to partner with larger companies to stay in business," Shibu said. ABB, by contrast, always has offered the market a full breadth of DC drives ? and continues to pioneer research that brings new technology and products to this portion of the market.

The Frost & Sullivan banquet honored world-class companies for outstanding performance and achievements in customer care. An annual event, the banquet recognizes the quality and merit of distinguished individuals and companies; it also includes a CEO roundtable ? an open forum that reviews how companies, proactively, can identify, evaluate and capitalize on growth opportunities in the market.

ABB., Automation Products, Low Voltage Drives, is the world's largest manufacturer of electric motors and drives. Through the efficient regulation of motor speed, torque and direction control, and the seamless integration of ABB variable speed drives with building automation and industrial process control systems, ABB drives and power products optimize processes and save energy (http://www.abb.com/motors&drives).

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 107,000 people.

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