FACE2FACE


Ekkehard Beermann Fastbolt


As 2010 drew to a close, Phil Matten met with Ekkehard Beermann to reflect on two of the most tumultuous years for the global fastener industry and consider the implications for Fastbolt.


“I


t is strange now to think that in autumn 2007 we could not see anything ‘risky’ coming up,” Ekkehard Beermann reflects. “Business was good and looked to be getting better.”


The previous spring Fastbolt had begun to plan investment


in its Gronau building to install a high-bay, fully automatic warehouse. By November 2007 everything was ready to go, approvals obtained and contracts ready for signature. “Then we had confirmation of the anti-dumping investigation against China had started. We could no longer be sure things would remain unchanged.” The development plans went on hold, initially for a month or so. “From that point on the news was all in one


direction. The level of duties ultimately applied was a shock but the direction was always clear throughout the process.” The actual bombshell came when Ekkehard


Beermann was at the November 2008 Las Vegas Fastener Show. “Everyone else was focused on Obama’s election day. There were just a few Europeans that, because of the time difference, knew things were about to change radically in the global fastener industry. That was the moment I was sure it had been right to postpone the building development.” Then the market plummeted overnight. For Fastbolt, sales continued into the New


Year. “We had a lot of back orders in the pipeline, which were shipped out in January, but we felt the dramatic drop in incoming orders. February was just a complete hole in the ground. We checked the fax and phones but it was just that the customers were not contacting us anymore.” “We had to adapt our cost base, of course,


to cope with the situation. Reducing staff was not an option. It would not, anyway, have been efficient; it certainly would not have been fair; so we took advantage of the German model for short time working, starting that in February 2009.” It proved to be an effective instrument, giving immediate cost relief. “We did not know how long the situation would last, so short time working was much better than losing people whose skills we had developed over a long period.” February through to May was simply “a disaster for both


turnover and profitability”. In July and August came the first signs that customers felt their inventory level had adapted to the reality of demand from the OEMs. “What we hoped, proved correct. People were cautious about going to the Far East for big quantities. They preferred to purchase short range from European stockholders and from European manufacturers who held stocks or could take advantage of the deflated steel costs to produce at much lower prices. Of course, everyone’s availability was fantastic – so winning each order was tough.” From August through to October there was a positive if


tentative trend. “People wanted to buy the right quantity, at the right time. They became more total cost oriented rather than


“September 2009 was the first time we really reordered.


From then on it slowly developed that we could sell more to our existing customers. By November we started to receive more positive feedback from our customers that OEMs were moving from emergency buying to purchasing for definite, if still cautious, production programs.” By February 2010 Fastbolt had sufficient confidence to


commit to a major range expansion. That required more storage capacity. During the overstock period it had used an external rented warehouse. “That was highly inefficient, costly and just a pain for us,” says Ekkehard Beermann. “So we restarted the construction project, but adapted it to the times.” The new socket screw range was due in July. “We wanted to be ready to sell it, which meant completing the building and making internal changes by then. We did it. We moved our packaging facility to the new hall, in turn creating space to extend our warehouse capacity – at the same time improving material flow.” The decision Fastbolt had taken was to build the material


handling hall envisaged in the original development plans but not, at this stage, to go for the automatic warehouse.


114 Fastener + Fixing Magazine • Issue 67 January 2011


being exclusively focused on the lowest global market price.” The world supply market had also become far less


transparent as a result of the anti-dumping tariffs applied to Chinese imports. “The option of going to China for a mixed product container had disappeared. You needed to know where to go; you needed to know who to talk to.” Fastbolt unquestionably benefited from the long lasting relationships it had developed with suppliers across Asia in the years before anti-dumping became an issue.


Hall: 6 Stand: K04


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