At the beginning of this year, Marc Kloepfel and Duran Sarikaya, Managing Directors of Kloepfel Consulting, summarized important events of the past year in the following interview. They also talked about challenges and opportunities for purchasing in 2022.
How did the year 2021 particularly affect the Kloepfel Group? And what conclusion do you draw from 2021 as an entrepreneur?
2021 was the year of supply bottlenecks and enormous price increases in purchasing. Of course, for many companies the year continued to be characterized by Corona and the resulting restrictions. We as a company have continued to learn over the past year to adapt our way of working more and more to the future.
EPSA – progress with new owner
For the Kloepfel Group, 2021 was of course a very special year because we sold our company shares to the French EPSA Group. This was a big step for both of us as managing directors and previous majority shareholders, but in retrospect very correct. It gave the Kloepfel Group the chance to grow much faster with professional Pan-European partners and to accelerate its way to becoming the German market and quality leader for purchasing and logistics.
At the beginning, we sensed uncertainties among colleagues and customers. We were asked many questions. What will happen now? Will we both be gone tomorrow? Will everything be turned upside down now? We believe that these fears, which some people had, have not come true. Our group has emerged from the merger much stronger. But we still have a lot of plans for 2022 to benefit even more from the partnership with the EPSA Group.
From cost optimizer to crisis manager in purchasing
On the customer side, we are satisfied with the year – we have received a lot of positive feedback. Due to supply bottlenecks and massive price increases, the challenges in many areas were different than before.
Pure cost optimization projects took place more with a focus on indirect purchasing. Supply bottlenecks, extreme price increases for raw materials, logistics bottlenecks and logistics price increases caused problems for almost all our customers – packers were needed to eliminate the problems – someone who could find products somewhere, help negotiate or pick containers where others had unsuccessfully given up. Here we were able to score strongly with many customers through pragmatism, our broad and international supplier network, high penetration and negotiating power as well as an experienced logistics and sourcing team.
We are currently acting as support and crisis managers for numerous companies from a wide range of industries – including many well-known companies. For example, our operational purchasing team in Slovakia has grown to over 50 people, providing operational purchasing support for over 30 companies. In addition to the classic cost reduction in purchasing, we also want to grow further in these areas in the coming months.
Strengthened by the crisis
For us, this means working more from the home office and much more across projects. In addition, individual people are working on several projects. We can deploy specialists across projects differently than in the past. This means that if we need special expertise, the relevant employee can be in this project today and in another tomorrow. This was not possible before, because we were always present on site. In this respect, our entire way of working has improved significantly. In 2020, this was all still new for us.
Attractive job
Before, it was difficult to keep employees interested in a consulting job for more than two or three years. Family, friends and the social environment suffered due to the permanent absence. This is now different!
The job at Kloepfel Group has become much more attractive and varied. Despite working on customer projects, you can sometimes be at home and don’t have to travel as much. At the same time, the workload is no higher than elsewhere. This development has been very good for us. We notice this on the applicant side in the form of a significant increase in candidate interest. At the same time, our own colleagues are much more satisfied.
Project development has also benefited greatly – for example, our potential analyses. In the past, two experts drove to the customer’s site and conducted interviews from morning until night before presenting the results of the analysis. Today, we stretch a potential analysis over several days, but without working on it for any longer on a net basis. However, specific experts can be brought in by teams to conduct the discussions, score points directly with their know-how and compile the results. The same applies to all other projects.
Conclusion from 2021
The bottom line is very positive. Our sales targets were achieved or even exceeded in most companies. The changes described are very good for the company and make us fit for the coming years. The cooperation in the EPSA Group has greatly helped us and our customers, especially during the months of supply chain problems. There is a difference between having a team of 300 or 1,500 international experts to fall back on. Most importantly, our customers give us consistently positive feedback – this motivates us a lot for the months and years to come!
What can medium-sized companies learn from 2021?
Keyword supply bottlenecks – here many companies had to painfully learn how important risk management is in purchasing. This means knowing in which areas there may be risks with one’s own suppliers and what to do in the event of occurrence.
These are classic things, such as finding a second source at the point where there are complete dependencies on a supplier. Alternatively, one should also try to define products in engineering in such a way that one can also work with other suppliers.
In addition, it should be considered whether storage strategies should be changed for suppliers where there are risks. So not only just in time and zero stock. Instead, consider how to stock up more broadly if necessary or build up so-called consignment warehouses with suppliers.
Technological progress. Working more closely with suppliers on innovations and product optimization
Closer cooperation with suppliers on technological developments is another issue we have been referring to for years. The supplier should be seen as a partner with whom developments are approached jointly. After all, the supplier knows the preliminary product best and also knows his supply markets. It is also possible to work together with several suppliers, to procure together and to prevent market uncertainties together.
In addition to the above-mentioned trends, the fourth megatrend is the major topic of “shortage of skilled workers, outsourcing, digitalization”. We do not want to repeat ourselves here, but this will continue to be a major concern for us in 2022.
The buyer should increasingly be seen as a strategic partner who builds supplier relationships. As just described, they should initiate developments together with suppliers. He should also find new suppliers, see trends and deal with risk management. The reputation of purchasing urgently needs to be improved. Unfortunately, this has still not been achieved in many companies.
What are the Kloepfel Group’s goals for 2022?
Together with the EPSA Group, we want to continue working on becoming the clear quality leader throughout Europe for all issues in purchasing and logistics.
This year, we want to become much more global and establish new consulting products such as ESG/Green Procurement in purchasing departments. We have a very broad range of experience, which we want to sharpen even further, transfer into new product ideas and push in terms of marketing. We will also be reorganizing our entire corporate appearance.
In Recruiting, we are planning numerous initiatives to bring even more bright minds and experts on board. Areas such as our sourcing center, our logistics team, our operational outsourcing center, our indirect subject matter experts, and our re-engineering team are to be further strengthened and made even more powerful.
The Kloepfel Group is not only a cost optimizer, but also a partner for processes and structures. In summary: the partner for all issues in purchasing and logistics.
Thank you very much for the interview!
Contact:
Kloepfel Group
Christopher Willson
Tel.: 0211 941 984 33
Pempelforter Str. 50
40211 Duesseldorf
Mail: rendite@kloepfel-consulting.com