Author: Kloepfel
Market Report March 2020: Face masks, protective clothing, sanitizers What is the global supply situation for hygiene products such as protective clothing and hand sanitizers? Production is currently being ramped up worldwide. Many companies are failing due to insufficient machinery and bottlenecks in the supply of raw materials such as FFP fleece or ethanol for disinfectants. Numerous export restrictions create further challenges and aggravate the situation in the supply chains. With the strong increase in demand for protective clothing and disinfectants, the price is also rising. Which is the highest price to be paid for? No generally valid statement can…
Contain effects, avoid delivery failures 1. Digital solutions for smooth processes in purchasing Home office for all employees is already mandatory in most companies. But this makes internal and external communication with colleagues and suppliers more difficult. Especially in purchasing, negotiations and detailed agreements are part of the agenda. In order to keep on doing so, digital communication solutions such as Microsoft Teams are a good choice. The versatile functions allow the purchasing department to maintain standard processes. 2. Rethinking and finding alternatives In a crisis situation, it is of the highest priority for Purchasing to ensure the flow…
Hornikel asks: With Jörn Werner In an interview with Alexander Hornikel, Senior Partner at Kloepfel Consulting, Jörn Werner, former CEO at A.T.U and Ceconomy, provides insights into the transformation of companies. Which challenges have to be overcome, how can employees be motivated and which leadership style is up-to-date? In your opinion, what are the most important values to follow a successful career path within a company? In order to have a successful career, first of all a lot of luck is needed. If you are in the right place at the right time, you can already gain great advantages. You…
HWWI raw material price index falls significantly in February HWWI overall index fell by 12.2 % (US dollar basis) Crude oil prices dropped by 13.5 Price decline of 5.8 % on the markets for industrial raw materials (Hamburg, March 17, 2020) In February, the HWWI commodity price index fell by an average of 12.2% (euro basis: -10.6%) compared with the previous month and stood at 98.4 points (euro basis: 100.1 points). Due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus, all indices included in the HWWI commodity price index fell last month. The sub-index for energy raw materials fell in February…
Globalization in the stress test While consumers and businesses benefit from services that globalization brings with it, it still faces image problems. In crisis situations such as the current corona epidemic, it is once again clear how unstable the networked world is. Not just one country is affected, but directly the global economy. The last time this problem was brought to light was a good ten years ago, when the financial crisis kept the world in suspense. At the moment, containers are stuck in China, in many countries workers stay at home and planes no longer take off. Slowly but…
An example of how the situation in Italy can affect logistics companies The restricted zones set up in Italy because of the coronavirus have an impact on Swiss logistics companies. This article deals specifically with logistics service providers in Aargau as an example of possible developments in Europe. Initially, after the Italian regions were sealed off, some logistics companies were uncertain whether Italian employees could come to work. But for the time being they can come. Jan Arnet, Managing Director of Bertschi AG, a logistics provider with 3100 employees and headquarters in Dürrenäsch, says: “Freight traffic and commuter traffic are…
Difficulty in estimating the financial consequences of coronavirus Deutsche Post DHL Group presented good figures for the 2019 financial year on Tuesday. At the same time, the forecasts for 2020 were communicated very cautiously. The revenue of Deutsche Post in 2019 was 63.3 billion euros. This represents an increase of three percent compared to the previous year. Net profit in 2019 increased by around 26 percent year-on-year to 2.6 billion euros. Commenting on the 2019 results, CEO Frank Appel said: “With our broad geographic footprint and our extensive portfolio, we are very robustly positioned and more resilient than other companies…
Düsseldorf, 13.03.2020 – Every year, the “Beste Berater” award honours the best management consultancies in Germany. Kloepfel Consulting has now been awarded the recognized industry seal for the fifth time in a row. Every year, the business magazine brand eins and the statistics portal Statista announce the winners of the “Beste Berater” award. Recommendations from consultants and customers are used to decide which companies receive the award. Thus, in the first part of a survey, the consultants are addressed as industry representatives and in the second part, the customers are interviewed as company representatives. In order to be able to…
Supply bottlenecks: Kloepfel Group sets up hotline The coronavirus is currently causing increasing supplier failures, exploding freight costs and production stoppages for medium-sized European companies. For this reason, the Kloepfel Group has set up the Kloepfel Taskforce “Coronavirus”, which affected or threatened companies can reach via our hotline +49 211 875 453 23 or by email p.esselborn@kloepfel-services.com). On the one hand the Kloepfel Taskforce Coronavirus supports you in your search for suppliers and on the other hand we check for you whether your suppliers are endangered in the medium or long term. Behind the Kloepfel Taskforce “Coronavirus” is our Shared…
Electric vehicle manufacturer takes over 79% of the European market Tesla was particularly expressive for the field of electromobility in 2019. This is because Matthias Schmidt, automotive analyst, predicts that 2019 would be named “the year of Tesla” in the history books. Last year, the number of pure electric car registrations in Europe rose by 78.9 percent. Tesla, which is under the leadership of Elon Musk, was most involved in this. If, for example, the registrations of the Model 3 are removed from the European market, the figure falls from around 79 percent to just under 31 percent. With a…
EU-funded project on an application of artificial intelligence Many seaports are not using yet all the possibilities of digitalization. For example, loading and unloading is only carried out automatically at less than three percent of the world’s terminals. A large amount of data is generated at a port. Bringing it together and using it is very costly in organizational and technical terms. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), this process could possibly be made easier in the future. Project DataPorts For better use of the data and further automation of the work at the terminals, there is now an…
German automotive industry is too dependent on the Asian market The German automotive industry is more and more struggling with supply bottlenecks. Electrical engineers are affected by the problem. In addition to Daimler, Audi has now also been affected. A spokesperson announced on Monday: “There are supply bottlenecks in the production of the e-tron in Brussels”. There are currently 3,000 employees in Brussels. Audi cites the difficult coordination of all 300 suppliers as the reason for the current problem. Industry circles declare supply bottlenecks of battery cells guilty. Workers do not have to fear a stop of production, but short-time…
Uwe W. Klenk about the retail industry Another year, another decade. Given the current rate of global warming, what will the state of the world be in 2029? Will electric canoes have replaced the motor car on flooded streets – much to the glee of Greta Thunberg, the new president of the EU Commission? Brexit Britain will have either sunk into the North Sea or have confounded its detractors by transforming London into a Singapore-upon-Thames. And what of today’s strongmen? Will Trump, Putin, Erdogan & Co. be revered as national heroes in white marble monuments or will a new female…
Press release Kloepfel Corporate Finance exclusively advised WITTENSTEIN SE on the disposal of its med-tech business to medical device specialist Orthofix Munich, February 2020 – Kloepfel Corporate Finance has acted as exclusive financial adviser to WITTENSTEIN SE (WITTENSTEIN) on the sale of its med-tech business to US based stock listed Orthofix Medical Inc. (Orthofix). The acquisition is anticipated to close by the end of the first quarter of 2020 subject to customary closing conditions. Orthofix will take over the portfolio of medical devices – comprised of FITBONE® and FITSPINE® – from WITTENSTEIN subsidiary WITTENSTEIN intens GmbH. WITTENSTEIN believes that the…
HWWI commodity price index fell in January HWWI overall index fell by 3.3 % (US dollar base) Crude oil prices declined by 2.4 % Index for industrial raw materials rose by 1.5 % (Hamburg, February 13, 2020) In January, the HWWI commodity price index fell by an average of 3.3 % (Euro base: -3.2 %) compared with the previous month and showed a value of 112.1 points (Euro base: 112 points). The decline in the price index was due to falling crude oil and natural gas prices. The sub-index for energy raw materials fell by 4.0 % (Euro base: -3.9…
365 days in one picture: Our yearly review 2019 in figures. What 21 companies with over 250 employees worldwide have achieved in one year! We would like to thank all those who have contributed to this success and look forward to 365 new days full of exciting projects, challenges and experiences.
Does it make sense for medium-sized companies to question or benchmark their long-term broker? How do broker tenders help to improve insurance coverage and save money at the same time? And how do broker tenders work? In an interview, Richard Mayer, spokesman for the Blumenbecker Group’s management since the beginning of 2019, explains how he improved his company’s insurance cover with little effort by issuing a broker tender. The international service provider for trade and industry, with around 1,300 employees in nine countries, generates annual sales of over 200 million euros. What was the occasion for Blumenbecker to take…
Düsseldorf, 23.01.2019 – Last year, the order intake of many companies collapsed, in some cases completely unexpected. As a result, production capacities were freed up on the supplier side and raw material prices fell. In many industries, the sellers’ market turned into a buyers’ market within a short period of time. Buyers will continue to have great potential in 2020 to optimize their procurement costs. Considering the more turbulent times as well as the opportunities offered by digitization, purchasing should basically see itself as a permanent innovation motor in order to be able to adapt to major changes faster than…