1990 - an exciting year. What were you doing in 1990? What moved you? Perhaps the end of the cold war? At that time, Winfried and Barbara Schütz from Rhön, Hessen, primarily focused on founding their company – DEGUMA-SCHÜTZ GmbH. Back then, it all started in an old lemonade factory in Weyhers, Hessen. At that time, the first machines were repaired, overhauled and stored on the site of the decommissioned factory before they were shipped out all over the world for rubber production. Even then, the machine portfolio was extensive: From presses, calenders and mixing mills to extruders and cutting machines, machines were offered for all process steps.

The next big step for DEGUMA

The lemonade factory quickly became too small and in 1994, groundbreaking took place for a new, larger building in Geisa on the Hessian border in Thuringia. In April 1995, the brand new red and white business facilities were inaugurated, with offices, a production site and warehouse spanning over 4,000 sqm.

Four years later, the couple took the next big step and in 1999 took over the program for the production of mold carriers for the polyurethane processing of Kannegiesser. This resulted in new markets, opportunities and businesses. Their courage paid off.

Being able to offer customers a large selection of quickly available machines has always been part of the business model of DEGUMA-SCHÜTZ GmbH. Therefore, in 2008 Winfried and Barbara Schütz decided to purchase another building nearby with office and hall areas (Plant II). Since then, the company has had a total of 5,600 sqm of workshop and storage space on which over 300 systems are stored and overhauled, and now even new machines are being built.

Energy-efficient and safe

After many years of intensively working on models from all European manufacturers, the technical staff developed improvements for the machines that not only put them back into service but also modernized and made them safer. This is how DEGUMA efficiency was developed ­– a state-of-the-art drive system that, among other things, makes rubber mixing mills more energy-efficient as well as more compact, quieter and safer. As the demand for compact mixing mills continued to increased, DEGUMA-SCHÜTZ GmbH made the decision to build its own new rubber mixing mills with this innovative drive system: the DEGUMA neo mixing mills. The development was first presented at the German Rubber Conference in 2018 and was immediately well received by experts in the field. The new machine portfolio now also includes extruders, roll cutters and laboratory presses.

But energy efficiency is not the only important issue in the operation of machines. People work on the machines in production every day, and their physical integrity should be a top priority. Working on used machines has made it clear that they often lack adequate safety devices and the immense power of the machines can quickly lead to serious accidents with fatal consequences. That is why the company joined the Machine Safety Working Committee of the BG RCI (Professional Association of Raw Materials and Chemical Industry) so that machines processed by DEGUMA comply with the latest safety guidelines. However, since many unsafe machines continue to be operated in rubber factories, DEGUMA-SCHÜTZ GmbH now offers retrofitting of safety devices as a service for other companies.

The next generation

Winfried Schütz and his late wife Barbara Schütz, who has since passed away, laid the foundation for all of this. But even full-blooded entrepreneurs can take a step back from the operational business once they pass seventy and have devoted more than 35 years to entrepreneurship. Winfried Schütz has gradually handed over the reins of the company to his daughter Viktoria Schütz over the past two years. After completing studies in Global Management and Marketing Management, gaining experience in various other companies, numerous stays abroad and implementing her own projects, she joined the company in 2013. Viktoria Schütz has now specialized in marketing for mechanical engineering companies and has also published a book on the subject.

Viktoria Schütz has been supported by Daniela Dingfelder as Operational Managing Director since fall 2019. Daniela Dingfelder is a commercial lawyer and previously worked with DEGUMA-SCHÜTZ GmbH as an external partner. She has many years of experience in strategy development, process optimization and risk management for medium-sized companies in various industries. In addition, she worked as a project manager on a training project in Tanzania for several years, in which a dual training program was implemented in the electrical engineering, automotive and hotel and restaurant sectors.

Read here how the two women run the company and how their plans for the future look like:

Future Perspectives of DEGUMA