|
Martin
Schürmann - DESMA General Manager
DESMA’s parent company Klöckner
Werke AG has recently sold controlling interest of their business to German
steel giant Salzgitter. This deal, which was announced
March 8th, is subject to regulatory approval.
Salzgitter
(www.salzgitter-ag.de/en)
is a very large publicly traded company. In
2006, they posted overall sales of 7 Billion Euro (~ $9.3 Billion US$) in
steel and steel related activities. “Salzgitter
is a profitable, well respected organization,” said Scott Early, President
and CEO of DESMA’s USA operation.
“With the
largest raw material on our machines being steel, the advantages of being
owned by one of the largest steel producers in
Europe
are obvious. This is a positive
development for our business and our future.”
DESMA’s parent company, Klöckner-Werke AG is a
holding company with subsidiaries operating around the world.
Overall turn over by Klöckner in 2006 was ~ 1 Billion Euro.
In addition to owning DESMA, they own KLÖCKNER DESMA Shoe
Machinery,
Klöckner Hänsel Processing, German automation specialist REMAK, and their
main business KHS. KHS is a
filling and packaging equipment specialist that serves the beverage industry.
For
the last several years, DESMA has globally grown above industry standards and
subsequently invested heavily in their factory in
Germany
,
Slovakia
,
China
and
India
.
Under the new structure with Salzgitter, DESMA expects this trend to continue.
“This appears to be a long term, strategic
purchase by Salzgitter.” says Early. Ironically,
Klöckner’s primary business, dating back to 1923 was steel production –
like Salzgitter. This changed in the 1960’s
when Klöckner moved their core focus towards mechanical engineering and
machine production.
In addition to the Salzgitter
news and in order to meet the challenges going along with the growing business
demands, DESMA also announced effective April 1st, the extension of
their senior management board at their headquarters in Germany. Martin
Schuermann was appointed
Executive Director who teams up with Dr. Bernd Scholz.
As
of this date, Dr. Scholz will be responsible for Engineering and Production,
including R&D, and Quality Assurance. Martin Schuermann will handle the
Sales & Administration aspects of DESMA including Marketing, as well as
Parts and Service.
Martin
Schuermann has worked within the Klockner organization for the last 18 years
and is familiar with capital equipment. Martin
previously served as the Managing Director of KHS (Klöckner's filling
technology division that is mentioned above) in South Africa, using his engineering background.
|
