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Author: Möbelfertigung

Now operates a spare parts warehouse in Bangkok

Dieffenbacher has strengthened its ability to serve customers in Thailand with the opening of a new spare parts warehouse near Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok. The warehouse will help satisfy increased demand resulting from five new Dieffenbacher plants commissioned in Thailand since March 2017. An additional plant is scheduled to start up this year.

The new warehouse is supervised by Dieffenbacher personnel at the company’s site in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At the Bangkok warehouse, two Thai-speaking service technicians support clear communication with customers and fast response times. Another advantage of the new location: Framework agreements for customer-specific storage and other services are now possible. Furthermore, parts can be invoiced in Baht, the Thai currency.

With the new spare parts warehouse, Dieffenbacher also offers express delivery service in Thailand. To minimize customer downtime, a selection of failure-critical and common spare parts is always available. If ordered before 10 a.m., these “express” parts are shipped the same day. This provides Thai customers with the best possible support.

Additional services at the new site in Bangkok include individual spare parts packages, including issuing of all necessary export and import documents, and inventory management services such as on-site inspection of spare parts inventory, status and outflow checks and advice on optimal stocking. Plant inspections and process optimization complete the service offer.

Read the complete issue online now

The E-magazine of the “Furniture Industry Insider 1/2020” is here! we offer an exciting mix of global and market-specific topics. In addition to a big preview of “Indiawood” and interviews with Binesh Vishwanath, founder of the important Indian furniture platform Woodzon.com and Sonia Prashar, Managing Director of NürnbergMesse India, the issue also features talks with Dr. Andreas Hettich and Philipp Blum. In addition, international design and architectural trends, the most important developments in fittings, surfaces and production technology and much more.

We thank NürnbergMesse India for their support.
The digital edition: CLICK HERE

Redesigned Website online

Since the beginning of the year, Zünd has been online with its completely renewed website zund.com. The new site is now completely responsive and has a tidier and more modern appearance. The range of information has been expanded and is now more logically structured, so that visitors can find the relevant information even faster.

Zünd is constantly expanding and developing its digital cutting systems. Simultaneous to this, user behavior is also changing in an increasingly digitalized environment. With its completely renewed online presence, Zünd is taking these developments into account.

In order to meet changing customer needs, Zünd has completely revised its website at zund.com. Thanks to fluid design, zund.com automatically adapts to the respective end device of the customer in regard to functionality and appearance. The new website is much more user-friendly and has various additional features. With the support of a simple Product Finder, visitors can quickly access the specific range of information tailored to their area of need. Alternatively, they can access application-related information with just a few clicks in the “Applications” area.

The visitor’s options for contacting Zünd internationally are also much simpler. Using a simple form, they are able to make an appointment for a personal demonstration in one of the demo rooms across the globe. If they would like to arrange a personal conversation with a Zünd specialist when visiting a trade fair, they can also easily indicate this on zund.com. In the “News Room”, visitors can find out about important news from the Zünd world, obtain a quick overview of upcoming participations in trade fairs, and discover many exciting user stories from a wide variety of application areas.

More than 7,000 visitors represent a record – business done for 19 million euros

More than 7,000 visitors from Mexico and abroad attended this year’s “MEM Industrial”, Latin America’s leading trade fair for woodworking, furniture manufacturing and forestry. Business with a value of over 400 million pesos (the equivalent of around 19 million euros) was conducted on site.

The “MEM Industrial” was organized by Hannover Fairs México, a wholly owned subsidiary of Deutsche Messe AG based in Hannover. “We have succeeded in making this trade show the leading event for the woodworking industry in Latin America,” said Christian Pfeiffer, Global Director “Ligna” & Woodworking at Deutsche Messe. (right in photo; left: Bernd Rohde, Managing Director Hannover Fairs México)

The “MEM Industrial” was held at Centro Citibanamex in Mexico City from January 22 to 24. 130 companies and 200 brand names from nine countries were represented on an exhibition area of more than 14,000 square metres. As the most comprehensive exhibition of its kind, this year’s “MEM Industrial” presented solutions along the entire value chain of the industry: from forestry and Industry 4.0 technologies to woodworking, furniture manufacturing, raw materials and accessories.

The key themes of this year’s “MEM Industrial” were rounded off by a free supporting programme of 20 conferences, workshops and seminars. The focus was on sustainability and innovative surface technologies as a bridge between design and industry.

The “furniture manufacturing” was the only German magazine exclusively on site. An extensive and detailed follow-up report on the trade fair will be included in the next issue of Industrie, which will appear in May.

In 2021 the “MEM Industrial” will take place from 20 to 22 January at Centro Citibanamex in Mexico City.

Few, but constructive discussions

The first impression at the “ZOW 2020”: The hall seems quite empty, both in terms of exhibitors and visitors. But the first impression is deceptive. In discussions with the exhibitors, a different picture emerges. The much-cited ideal location of the fair in the heart of the german furniture industry simply works. Sascha Kostros, Head of Decor Management at Impress, for example, puts it on record: “We had conversations right at the beginning that justified the whole appearance.  As far as the exhibition is concerned, Impress has adopted the theme of the fair, “Tiny Spaces”. “With less living space, of course the furniture gets smaller. And the decors have to match that. So our task is to think holistically from the living space,” explains Kostros. The company has used the most interesting new decors directly at the reception counter.

But “Tiny Spaces” as the trade fair motto has also inspired other companies. Hailo, for example, exhibited a mini kitchen as a study. “This is even far ahead of what we would call a prototype. But logistically, we can’t even bring something like that to our customers to talk about. ZOW is ideal for this,” explains Frank Peter Koch, the company’s Marketing Director. “It works particularly well here because people from the kitchen industry sometimes come along who are unlikely to go to more distant trade fairs. Because they are needed as technicians in the factory.

All in all, there are far more new things to see than might have been expected. For example, in addition to 14 new handles, Schüco Alu Competence also has a new profile light for the great “Smart Cube” shelving system. At the DekoraPur stand, “Pure Flex Super”, a completely new surface material created in cooperation with Kleiberit, will even be on display. The four millimetre thick panel can be bent almost freely and can thus be used in radii. At the same time, it can be cut with a cutter knife and even offers antibacterial properties. Thomas Luckow, Sales Manager at DekoraPur: “If it weren’t for ‘ZOW’, we wouldn’t have found a stage for this product for a very long time. The ‘Holz-Handwerk’ doesn’t fit in so well and not everyone goes to the ‘Euroshop’. Here we meet our most important target group.”

The “ZOW 2020” is small, the first impression is not ideal. But the important visitors are here again and for the exhibitors the rule is: you get out what you put in.

Opens New North American HQ

With a ribbon-cutting ceremony that took place on November 15, 2019, Zund America celebrated the Grand Opening of its brand-new facilities in Oak Creek, Wisconsin (USA). The new North American Headquarters are a testimony to Zund America’s remarkable growth and success over the past 15 years. Established in 2004 as a sister company to Zünd Systemtechnik AG in Altstätten, Switzerland, Zund America has grown from a handful of employees to more than 80 and has now tripled the total square footage of its facilities to nearly 60,000. The new, high-tech structure combines under one roof expanded demonstration and training facilities, customer service & support, parts & consumables warehousing and logistics, as well as administrative offices.

“This impressive, state-of-the-art facility represents a tremendous investment in the future of our company. With nearly 10,000 sq. feet devoted to demonstrations and training, the new customer experience center is very much the centerpiece of the new building; nonetheless, the greater space and efficiencies it affords all other departments will allow us to continue supporting our rapidly growing customer base in the USA, Canada, and the Caribbean for years to come and deliver the world-class service for which Zünd is known,” states Dan Ryan, Zund America’s CEO.

The design of the new building is also a reflection of Zünd’s environmental values. It incorporates high-efficiency glass panels, HVAC and building automation systems for light, shade, and temperature control. With an eye towards the future, Zund America has plans and plenty of space ready for further expansions.

New subsidiary in Poland

Torwegge GmbH und Co KG continues to expand and at the beginning of the year founded a Polish subsidiary with a subsidiary in Posen. It operates under the name Torwegge Polska Sp. z o. o. The intralogistics specialist is thus reacting to the increasing demand for conveyor technology and intralogistics components from its Polish customers and their desire for stronger support. Two area sales managers share the market in Germany’s eastern neighbour. With the opening of this new location, the family-owned company with headquarters in Bielefeld is now present with its own branches in five European countries.

“The Polish market has become more and more important for us economically over the past years. Expansion was a logical step,” explains Uwe Eschment, Managing Director of Torwegge GmbH und Co KG. For more than 20 years, the company has served customers in Poland from Germany. The country’s positive economic development and the increased demand for solutions such as those offered by Torwegge prompted the intralogistics specialist to open its own office. “In this way, we can offer our customers even better professional and technical advice locally,” says Eschment.

Since 1 January 2020, the two sales managers Arkadiusz Jeran and Łukasz Orłowski have been responsible for Torwegge Polska Sp. z o. o. in Poznan. From now on, they will be travelling all over Poland to advise customers on material flow optimisation and sell wheels, castors, components, conveyor technology or complete intralogistics systems. They have gained experience in sales and customer service in previous jobs and are familiar with the intralogistics industry. In addition, they both speak fluent Polish, German and English. “It is important for us that our consultants speak the local language of their customers and are familiar with the cultural peculiarities. This makes it easier to understand and builds trust,” says Eschment.

In addition to the subsidiary in Poland, Torwegge operates locations in four other European countries: Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In total, the intralogistics specialist employs almost 140 people.

The world’s leading trade fair continues to grow internationally

The “Bau” is becoming increasingly attractive for international companies. The registrations received to date for the next event in January 2021 indicate that up to 40 percent of the visitors will come from abroad. This would be the first time in the 55-year history of “Bau” to reach the 40 percent mark.

However, it will not be possible to make a concrete statement until early summer, when the first placement round is over and the companies have responded to the placement proposals of the project management. “At the moment we are even well over 40 percent, but experience shows that the curve flattens out as the trade fair approaches,” explains Markus Sporer, Deputy Project Manager.

In theory, interested companies can register for “Bau” until shortly before the trade fair begins. However, as a result of the strong demand for space, the 19 exhibition halls with their 200,000 square metres of floor space are already almost fully booked. Demand is currently particularly high from those countries that have always been in the top 10 in recent years: Italy, Austria, Poland, Turkey, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. But “Bau” is also experiencing strong growth in demand from overseas, especially from China and the USA.

Bau” 2021 thus continues a development that has been observed in this continuity for a good ten years: the international character of the fair is growing steadily, both on the exhibitor and visitor side. The number of international exhibitors has almost doubled since 2009: from 464 (2009) to 530 (2011), 572 (2013), 637 (2015) and 715 (2017) to 849 (2019). Most recently, the proportion of international exhibitors was 37 percent.

Dr. Manfred Bracher takes up work as COO

As announced in December 2019, the Management Board of Surteco Group SE will take over the management of Surteco GmbH. Therefore the Board of Directors has now been strengthened and with effect from 1st February Dr. Manfred Bracher, graduate engineer, plastics technology, took up his work as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Dr. Bracher brings with him more than 20 years of international experience and technical expertise in the field of plastics and laminate production. He previously held senior management positions at the Austrian Lenzing Group, the Finnish packaging manufacturer Huhtamaki and Clopay Europe GmbH. Most recently, Dr. Bracher was a member of the Board of Management of RKW SE, Frankenthal, a manufacturer of film solutions for various industries.

“We are very pleased about the reinforcement of the board team. Dr. Bracher will help us to quickly move forward with the further improvement of the company’s competitiveness and realignment,” says Wolfgang Moyses, CEO of Surteco Group SE.

The Executive Board of Surteco Group SE now consists of Wolfgang Moyses/CEO, Dr. Manfred Bracher/COO and Andreas Riedl/CFO (until 30 June 2020).