Interview with W. Schütz
Interview with Winfried Schütz celebrating DEGUMA's 25th anniversary
25 years ago, in 1990, DEGUMA was founded. Today, the medium-sized mechanical engineering business, located in Germany, has a worldwide reputation and is known as one of the leading provider for pre-owned machinery for the rubber and plastic processing industry and related services. DEGUMA has sold machinery to more than 30 countries today.
Winfried Schütz, the founder and CEO of DEGUMA, reminisces the last 25 years in the following interview.
Mr. Schütz, DEGUMA’s business activities are pretty specific, how did you come up with this business idea and how did you establish the company internationally?
At first, we built passenger and goods elevators. But this market was dominated by big international companies. So, I was looking for a market niche that big companies would not occupy. Eventually, I found this niche in the field of used machines for rubber and plastic processing. For this kind of job you need high flexibility, broad expert knowledge about all the different machine types and to provide prompt service. Today, we are an internationally leading company in this market niche. A so called hidden champion.
And what has been your key to success?
Outstanding qualitative performance, extensive marketing, perseverance in searching and acquiring new customers, and most of all a good relationship with our regular customers. Moreover, prompt responses to problems in combination with solution-oriented processes.
From which industries are your customers from and how did you gain the required knowledge?
Our customers are for example producers of technical rubber goods like seals, rubber-to-metal bonding, and rubber profiles, manufacturers of polyurethane mouldings or foils, conveyor belts, and cables. We have gained profound knowledge during years of experience, through a good and intensive relationship with our customers, technical literature, trainings on a regular basis and the daily practice.
How did you always match the right trends or market developments?
If you focus on customers and the market, you can see what the future will bring us and learn to differentiate if an innovation endures or is just current. We always have had a good relationship to our customers and have seen which needs are evolving. Right now for example these are sustainability and shorter delivery times.
How important is quality for your business?
Quality is very important to achieve long-term survival. The economic crisis has proven that recently. Quality is crucial concerning service and overhauling the machines. In the rubber industry machines are used over a long period and are exposed to strong forces. Through high quality these machines keep their condition and value in the long run. Customers always remember the names of the manufacturers that keep up to their expectations. To give an example: we just sold a Rotocure from 1931 built by a famous German manufacturer.
What do you think has changed over the last 25 years in your business?
Today it is not enough any more to only deal with machines or sell them in as-is condition. Many customers wish modifications or modernizations according to their requirements. Especially to achieve energy efficiency our customers like to buy state of the art technology, i.e. motors, electronic controls. Our expertise in these areas secures us a competitive advantage. In general, the competition is stronger today: offers are expected to be written in one day due to digital technology. On the other hand, you can send videos and photos in a few minutes or analyze operational faults on the other side of the globe.
Where do you think innovations will lead your industry in the future to?
Energy efficiency and sustainability will still be important topics. Taking this into consideration we offer i.e. highly efficient motors which save up to 30 % energy. By reusing machines and machine parts sustainability lies in the heart of the matter. Furthermore, worker protection has become more and more important. So we offer different possibilities to upgrade the security level of existing machines.
What will the future look like for DEGUMA in the next years?
Because of the recent international development you can predict future less than ever before. But I am confident and I hope that DEGUMA will exist another 25 years at least. For this purpose we established our daughter, Viktoria Schütz, as an authorized officer already. And I am excited to work with all our employees on our visions and to cope with the future challenges. Thereby, the wishes and requirements of our customers have still top priority.