During the construction crisis, there was a real battle for consolidation when it came to survival.
Internationally operating manufacturers of specific building materials safeguarded their growth by taking over rival manufacturers who had similar products. Besides realising cost savings by scaling up, we are also responding to the market trend which demanded the ‘bundled selling of products and services’. Supplying so-called total solutions.
How do you stay relevant as a company – successful, a regional market leader and highly profitable – within a leading multinational, while maintaining Dutch employment opportunities?
My vision was that the company had the best chance of succeeding by charting a ‘stand-alone’ course. The implementation of this strategy meant that we had to rely on our own merits and had to optimally further develop both the operational and commercial strengths of the company. With the aim of creating as strong a starting position as possible in the upcoming power play of who, with whom, when and how?
The company remained very profitable throughout the construction crisis and afterwards as well. The regional market leader position was retained, despite the fact that the entire volume of the market shrank by double-digit percentage points as a result of the construction crisis in the non-residential construction sector.
Shares in the export markets had risen sharply. The company became even more the benchmark in terms of product quality and product innovations, offering unique patented product solutions.
Thanks to smart medium-sized investments in manufacturing equipment, improvement of work processes (through the successful implementation of a new, more flexible and complete ERP system), continual focus on safety in the work place, and increases in the output per line. This company’s manufacturing process became the benchmark for the other manufacturing companies within the international division. Thanks to smart automation in the various assembly lines, and focus on “good production in one go.”
As a result of a well-established reputation as a flexible ‘cost-price production leader’, the company has become the most important and leading manufacturing location within the European group. The Dutch employment levels have been maintained and will continue to rise when the planned investments are implemented.
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