Author: Kloepfel
The CFO of LÜHR FILTER reports in an interview about the joint project with GFE Solutions. How was your technical management organized before the cooperation with GFE Solutions? At the beginning we had an extremely high work load in the technical processing. As a medium-sized business in the project area, however, we cannot immediately hire new employees when more work is needed. After all, the additional capacity becomes unnecessary when the workload is reduced. In this case, we have already relied extensively on the support of external service providers, which, of course, have corresponding prices. What was the main objective…
Flexible like a startup – strong like a corporation More and more German-speaking companies of all industries and sizes are outsourcing their purchasing activities, in other words they outsource operational purchasing tasks to neighboring countries such as Slovakia. In this interview you will learn about how you grow on call with nearshoring, inspire your buyers and implement a nearshoring project step by step. Why should medium-sized companies think about nearshoring in purchasing? There are a number of motives that motivate our customers to outsource their operational purchasing activities to our shared service center in Slovakia. The main drivers across all…
One e-Mail is all it takes Optimise offers in 24 hours Often the purchasing department in medium-sized businesses lacks the time to renegotiate offers for irregular requirements. From now on Kloepfel Services offers you to optimize concrete and orderable offers from 500 € on for specified products. It doesn’t matter whether it’s office furniture, computers, handicraft services or the buffet for the Christmas party. Buyers can now shine with Quick Wins even when they have irregular (one-time) requirements – one e-mail is all it takes: The implementation is 100% based on success and is very simple for our customers. Step…
Approval for autonomous multi-storey car park Bosch and Daimler have joined forces in the field of autonomous parking. After the “Automated Valet Parking” was tested in the parking garage of the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the authorities have now granted their approval. Criteria for safety and approval have been jointly developed and will also be applied in other projects. The corresponding vehicles are now officially allowed to park next to conventional cars without a driver. The technology comes from Bosch and the vehicles are provided by Mercedes-Benz. The service is activated via a smartphone app, and the vehicle is then…
Importance of purchasing As a result of globalization, the volume of world trade has increased to almost twice the volume of world production of goods. In Germany, the share of material and service purchases has increased by 75 percent in most sectors. Accordingly, three quarters of the parts have to be procured by the purchasing department. The task of modern purchasing is to supply the company on time with all required goods and services in sufficient quality. However, many companies are not aware of the growing importance of purchasing. Sometimes too little attention is paid to this or simply too…
The world’s largest aircraft manufacturer soon? Boeing is so far the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world, but this could change soon. While the US company is still struggling with the 737 Max aircraft, Airbus has been able to catch up significantly. The European aircraft manufacturer managed to double its profit in the first half of the year. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) climbed to EUR 2.53 billion. The company announced this in Paris on Wednesday. Only 1.16 billion euros were achieved in the same period last year. Net profit also doubled from EUR 0.5 billion to EUR…
HWWI raw material price index falls further in June HWWI total index falls by 9.1% (US dollar basis) Crude oil price decreases by 10.6% Index for non-ferrous metals drops by 1.6% Hamburg, 17 July 2019: The HWWI commodity price index fell by an average of 9.1% (in euros: -10.0%) in June compared with the previous month. Thus, the overall index achieved a score of 109.5 points (in euros: 107.6 points). While the prices of all commodity groups represented in the index fell in May, the prices of fossil energy raw materials in particular fell in June. The index for energy…
Bosch and Continental affected It was discovered at the beginning of June that the lead levels of millions of vehicles worldwide are not permitted because of components from the automotive supplier Continental. Small electrical parts that the company ordered from a Chinese supplier and used in its components are the cause of this. The ‘minor breach’ was discovered by the company itself and reported to the competent authorities, according to Conti. According to the Ministry of the environment in Lower Saxony, there is no danger to people or the environment, as the components are firmly installed and not subject to…
In times of changing competitive pressure, shorter product life cycles and increasing globalization, companies must react flexibly and cost-effectively to changing market conditions. Many companies ask themselves the question: Should we produce by ourselves or should we outsource production? The decision is made according to criteria such as costs, quality, time, availability of resources and risks. For this reason, a strategic in-house production/external procurement analysis is absolutely necessary in order to weigh up all the advantages and disadvantages if you want to concentrate on your core competencies. Example automotive industry The product range of automobile manufacturers has grown strongly in…
Your partner for corporate transactions and corporate finance in SMEs As one of the main business units of the Kloepfel Group, Kloepfel Corporate Finance has specialised in the area of corporate finance advisory. Their focus is on mergers & acquisitions (M&A) in the SME segment. Kloepfel Corporate Finance successfully advises and supports national and international companies, family offices and private equity funds in their transaction matters, both on the sale and purchase side. Related financing issues are also the focus of their services. With more than 100 in-house experts of the Kloepfel Group in various industries and markets, the company…
Based on the success of Kloepfel in the German speaking regions and after establishing companies in several Eastern European countries, Kloepfel Consulting is now planning to broaden its European footprint by opening offices in the Benelux markets. Peter Smit, Manager at Kloepfel Benelux and spokesperson for the Benelux market is convinced that Benelux manufacturing companies could improve their procurement: “Many Benelux-based companies, just like their neighbours in Germany, miss out on valuable procurement savings. If the right measures are taken, these savings can be effectively turned into sustainable net profit.” Benelux customers will be able to benefit from the direct…
Interview with Egor Kozlov of GFE Solutions, and Philipp Jansen of LÜHR FILTER All over Europe we experience a shortage of skilled workers. Many companies work with outsourcing service providers in order to occupy their vacancies. But regional providers can be too expensive, especially for small and mid-sized companies. However, prices of Eastern European providers can be much cheaper while providing the same or even better quality. Egor Kozlov, CEO of the Ukrainian company GFE Solutions, and Philipp Jansen, CFO of LÜHR FILTER, talked to the Kloepfel Magazine about their joint project. What service does GFE Solutions provide for its…
Transaction background The individual enterprise of Arnd Brüning, founded in 1992 in Fischerhude near Bremen, presents itself today as the Brüning Group with the companies Brüning-Euromulch GmbH, Brüning-Megawatt GmbH, Brüning-Logistik GmbH, Brüning International GmbH and Gebrüder Meyer GmbH. Since then the group developed to a service enterprise operating European-wide and is established among other things as a market leader with the supply of biomass (heat) power stations. Positioned as a supply and disposal company, the Brüning Group structures and bundles the flow of mainly woody raw materials for thermal and material recycling (e.g. to energy producers, wood-processing industry, gardeners and…
Negotiations in purchasing and logistics Negotiation is one of the most used and decisive tools for buyers. A strategically successful negotiation can promise huge costs or welcomed savings. Savings in purchasing usually go hand in hand with a higher profit margin and a stronger competitive position. In the following guidebook article you can read about 7 effective tips that can make your next negotiation a great success. 1. Set negotiating goals and increase motivation Purchasing and procurement have a great potential to increase sales and profits of a company. For example, in the German automotive industry, one percent savings in…
Politics puts pressure on companies The grand coalition is making companies more committed to ensuring compliance with human rights in their supply chains. In the coalition agreement of 2018, it was agreed that it would be reviewed whether the current voluntary commitment would be honored or not. For this purpose, 1800 companies with more than 500 employees will be surveyed from August onwards. If less than 50 percent of the companies surveyed adhere to the standards along the supply chain, they want to introduce a new law. Change in questionnaire causes criticism A similar law already exists in France. Here,…
Ex-Topmanager from Audi Peter Hochholdinger leaves the US car manufacturer Tesla as head of production. The German car expert was regarded as a hopeful that the stagnating production could be set in motion. In the summer of 2016, he moved from Audi to the Elon Musk company to improve production. This was reported by the industry blog Electrek. Tesla has not yet commented, nor has Hochholdinger. He was responsible for the production of the A4, A5 and Q5 models at Audi in Ingolstadt for more than 20 years before joining the US-Americans. He is a trained tool inspector and materials…
Cooperation with Ericsson and Telefónica Car manufacturer Mercedes makes its plant in Sindelfingen fit for industry 4.0 and equips production with the latest 5G standard. For the implementation, the car manufacturer cooperates with Telefónica Germany and the network supplier Ericsson. The 5G technology will initially be used in a 20,000 square meter section of Factory 56 in the production area. The plant is one of the top 3 car factories in Germany. Here, the E- and S-class models come off the assembly line. Mercedes gets its own campus network Mercedes wants to use the 5G network to make production more…
OECD comparison of industrialized countries The tax burden in Germany is particularly high for employees. This is the result of the latest “taxing wages” study for 2018 published in April by the industrialized countries organization OECD. In an international comparison, Germany does not perform very well for employees: single people pay 49.5 percent of their income to the state in the form of taxes (including employer’s contribution / with an average income). For comparison: the average of the 36 OECD countries is 36.1 percent. This means that only Belgium is ahead of Germany (52.7 percent). Taxes are also high for…