Mayer: Würth Difference is Direct Contact With Customers
Europe has “saturated markets” in many product categories and for the Würth Group “the difference is direct contact with the customer,” Jurgen Mayer told the National Fastener Distributors Association.
In conjunction with the 2017 Fastener Fair Stuttgart, NFDA toured the Würth Industrie Service GmbH & Co. facilities in Bad Mergentheim, Germany.
The Würth Group’s history is having approximately half the employees involved in sales. Würth Industrie has 1,420 employees – plus 188 trainees – 83 key account managers and 366 employees in sales.
Würth Industrie is part of the Würth Group, which has 400 independent companies totaling 71,000 employees. There are 31,500 employees in sales for 300,000 customers.
Würth Industrie has 4,000 customers for fasteners and C-parts, yielding EUR 455 million (US$488m) in sales in 2016.
Mayer said among those customers, Würth’s “first focus is on OEMs.”
Mayer noted that so much of what is going on in commerce today is automation-oriented: Reducing suppliers, internationalization of customers and real time information on just where each product is.
Sales people can help a customer with issues such as waste in a factory, Mayer said.
Founded in 1999, on the once 300-acre site of a German army base, in the spa-resort town of Bad Mergentheim, along Germany’s “Romantic Road,” Würth Industrie ships throughout Germany in 24 hours and around Europe in 48 hours.
Bad Mergentheim has a population of 22,500 and is 70 north miles of Stuttgart and 80 miles south of Frankfurt
Würth’s first high rack warehouse was built in 2004. The 15,000-pallet vertical racks rise nearly 150 feet high.
Today Würth operates two shifts a day, six days week.
Despite the massive racks, “you know where each and every product is,” Mayer said.
The facilities draw three or four customer visits per day, Mayer noted.
What is in the future for the Bad Mergentheim facility? Beyond today’s highly-automated warehouses, Würth is testing development of free roaming robots. Web: wuerth-industrie.com
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