Extrusion International 3-2016

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Extrusion International 3/2016 35
mauer (established since 1968), now smaller packaging ma-
chines will be built in the 16,000-square-meter space. Through
consolidation of the processes at a single site, significant syn-
ergies have already been achieved. For this, BEKUM invested
more than 5 million Euros in the expansion of the site, partic-
ularly by adding assembly and office space, as well as in the
construction of a new central warehouse. At the same time,
approximately 40 new employees were hired. It was also pos-
sible to persuade key production employees to move from
Berlin to Traismauer. Andreas Kandt: “Experienced and knowl-
edgeable employees remained loyal to us and went to Trais-
mauer to ensure continuity and knowledge transfer.”
New Headquarters in Berlin
In Berlin, the company moved into new headquarters in mid-
April 2016, not far from the previous headquarters. In con-
temporary offices, worldwide operations come together in
the areas of sales and marketing, development and design,
as well as technical service and spare parts distribution. These
areas were purposely kept in Berlin to ensure continuity of
customer service and technical development of individual
customer solutions via the highly experienced Berlin-based
staff. Andreas Kandt: “With approximately 16,000 BEKUM
machines blow moulding machines delivered worldwide, we
have a great responsibility to support our customers in their
production tasks competently and, above all, quickly.”
Sales Success is evident
New orders were received in Eastern Europe and the Middle
East for mostly small and medium-sized machines for the
packaging industry. These have been delivered as the first
packaging machines out of the Traismauer factory. The auto-
motive segment was also extremely successful over the past
year. Large orders for VW in Wolfsburg (Germany), as well as
for production facilities of Fiat in Italy and Brazil, were gained
against the competition, underscoring BEKUM’s high level of
expertise in this market segment. Several single-station and
double-station tank blow moulding machines for producing
coextruded 6-layer or 7-layer fuel tanks with IMD (in-mould
deflashing) and SIB (ship in the bottle) technology are involved.
Andreas Kandt: “In this market segment, we can demonstrate
our natural strengths: Uncompromising product quality with
high production output and machine uptime. Our special
strength is offering customers complete production cells. In
this area, we serve most major car manufacturers in Europe.”
Summary
These were essential milestones for strategic reorganisation,
defined by a dedicated BEKUM management team in Berlin
and Traismauer, for achieving simultaneous aims of stability
and continuity, as well as progress and innovation. The suc-
cessful consolidation of production departments prepares
BEKUM for the future in the area of packaging machines. At
the same time, major commercial success in automotive ma-
chines proves BEKUM to be the “all-around” technology
leader in blow moulding machines.
Expansion and consolidation of production in Traismauer
(Lower Austria) in 16,000 square meters
Large machine construction in Traismauer: Final assembly in
Traismauer of a 6-layer tank system blow moulding machine,
type BA 220 M Coex, for the automotive sector