INSIGHT That means literally. Frederik Roth is responsible for sales and
purchasing, “with the assistance of my colleagues who are really the important people”. Two other partners are directly involved in the operational management of Max Mothes. Hermann Andreas covers the financial and control functions, including analysis of inventory and other data now being drawn from the computer system – itself firmly in the hands of a Schüring & Andreas Navision specialist, a veteran of seven other Navision installations within the group. Partner Tom Peiffer has overall responsibility for IT as well as personnel issues, the quality department and logistics. “We all live in the companies,” says Frederik Roth. “We do not have headquarter offices, we simply share one secretary in Berlin.” Each acquisition - investment is only ever as a majority
stakeholder - must be capable of becoming an independent sustainable business unit. In the longer run, typically around four years, senior operational management transfers to people from within the business. “Then we look at the next project,” says Roth, “although it should be said we are very opportunist so the timeframe is not fixed.” Reporting systems are transparent: a so-called scorecard provides exactly the same information to
“ We have visited major suppliers, something that had not been done for a very long time, to re-establish trust and demonstrate there is a solid balance sheet to underpin a new long term relationship.”
the works council and employees as is received by the banks. “The employees are actually the assets of the business and we want them to have the information to be responsible for it,” says Roth. “In our experience the employees almost invariably know what needs to be done.” It is something often said but observing Frederik Roth’s personal conduct with people from engineering shop floor to management in Max Mothes it has the ring of truth in this case.
Max Mothes projects 40 million euro sales in 2011. Frederik Roth does not envisage fundamental changes in strategy to achieve this and a return to profitability for 2012. “Max Mothes has been renowned for having the widest range of fasteners in Europe and we do not see that changing. We will focus on building a profitable business; the revenue level is not in itself the issue. Our aim is to make the customers happy – but we expect a fair price for the services and skills we provide.” Virtually all employees transferred to the new business. “We
did let some people go who did not have the confidence of the employees or in some cases that of the customers,” says Roth. “We have visited major suppliers, something that had not been done for a very long time, to re-establish trust and demonstrate
there is a solid balance sheet to underpin a new long term relationship.” The majority of those suppliers are European – a policy that will continue under a strategy developed by new head of purchasing Peter Heumüller, who joined the business in 2010 following ten years with the Würth Group. He acknowledges the challenges presented by a 650 strong supplier base. The complexity is increased by a definite continuation of Max Mothes policy that sales people have end to end responsibility, including purchasing, for special and customised parts. “This has been at the core of Max Mothes success,” says Frederik Roth, “and we do not want to lose the connection or create delays or errors by filtering it through a centralised purchasing operation.” It is a decision that places a critical requirement on Heumüller and the ERP system to ensure he knows what is going on at an early stage in each transaction. On Asian sourcing Frederik Roth is adamant. “We would
be fools if we bought fasteners from China. The German and European mechanical engineering industry wants to have the quality of European fasteners. For our customers part of the success of Max Mothes is that we have shorter communications along the supply chain.” Equally important is Max Mothes own engineering and
logistics capabilities. Schüring & Andreas are committed to investing in both. “We are fortunate that investment in the new warehouse at Neuss had already been made prior to the insolvency and provides us with the capacity we need,” says Frederik Roth. “We just need to improve the processes.” Similarly he sees only strength in Max Mothes manufacturing operation and particularly its responsiveness to customer requirements. “In-house production is an entry ticket. If we solve the customer’s problem we will be offered additional business.” Currently own production represents around ten percent of total sales. Roth rules out any fundamental changes, in particular moving into cold forging. ”It is not our strategy. That is where we want a very close cooperation with our supply partners.” Investing and updating CNC and machinery capabilities are, though, on the cards; with the potential for a second shift also providing additional capacity. Export presents growth opportunities also. Currently
accounting for 30% of sales, Max Mothes is servicing key customers with operations across the world, ranging from Brazil and North America to Turkey and India. Perhaps surprisingly, given Max Mothes’ long reputation as lender of the last resort within the trade, less than 20% of the total business is from other fastener distributors, a ratio that has not significantly changed in the last five years. The company has operated Kanban services to key customers for many years, although the impression is that in most cases Max Mothes represents a secondary supply position - picking up lower volume, more specialist items, for which its combination of a diverse, if not on occasions esoteric, stockholding and in-house engineering capabilities makes it admirably suited. Of course, it is early days but the Schüring & Andreas track
record in turning round Mittelstand companies that have lost their way is impressive. Nor are the challenges of the fastener sector alien to it – the partnership acquired Honsel in 2002, investing heavily in modernisation of the rivet maker and, distinctive from Max Mothes which has no aspirations in this direction, building up its automotive business. Most convincing, though, is the open relationship with the
people at Max Mothes, which is clearly reciprocated at the moment by a level of confidence and enthusiasm that appears to bode extremely well for the company’s future prosperity.
62 Fastener + Fixing Magazine • Issue 72 November 2011
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