Plastics in perfect form BWF Profiles 90 Precision to perfection

BWF PROFILES I PROFILE

Plastics

in perfect form

As part of a group boasting over 100 years of history, clients of Germany’s BWF Profiles benefit from the BWF Group’s huge reserve of manufacturing capacity, product availability and technical expertise across the board. With its relentless focus on sustainability throughout its processes and product ranges, BWF Profiles is not your average plastic profile fabricator. Silke Gall, Sales and Marketing Director at the company, spoke to Richard Hagan about its success despite the uncertainty and pressures of Covid-19.

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Manufacturer of a range of plastic profiles, tubes, sheets and foils for use across various industries, BWF Profiles’ largest markets are in retail and in lighting, with the lighting industry alone accounting for 75% of its turnover.

According to Silke Gall, Sales and Marketing Director at BWF Profiles, the company’s success is a direct result of both its customer-focused approach and its high-quality products.

“We really care for our customers,” she said. “We are intentional about walking every step with them – from the initial concept, through the design phase, to the finished product – and we comprehensively support our products with world-class aftersales service as well.

“With regards to our products, we are adamant about only supplying the highest quality to our customers,” Ms Gall continued. “To us, high quality means perfect finishes and perfect surfaces, with no scratches. It’s about achieving perfect colours and matching them to the best lighting technology with the most stringent technical requirements.”

Certified quality

BWF Profiles proudly boasts the highly sought-after ISO 9001 certification. Ms Gall explained what this means for the company and what its customers can expect.

“Being certified ISO 9001 means that we have clear and defined manufacturing processes with clear responsibilities for specific people to carry out specific tasks at particular stages.”

The ISO 9001 certification effectively guarantees the quality of the company’s products by ensuring stable processes supported by standardised documentation.

“The products we deliver are high quality – that’s really important to us,” she emphasised. “To ensure that we’re delivering on the ISO mandate, we are audited at least once a year, so we’re constantly challenged to optimise our processes and improve overall. Customers are very impressed by all of this and it has had a vital, positive impact on our customer satisfaction.”

Profiling facilities and products

BWF Profiles is part of the BWF Group, which was founded as a family business all the way back in 1896. At first, the company focused on the production of felt, which is reflected in the name, with BWF being an acronym for Bavarian Wool Felt Factory.

The plastics division was added decades later in 1956, initially just to manufacture plastic profiles to support the group’s felt production.

Today, the BWF Group employs 1,800 staff across 16 different production facilities which occupy an impressive 20,000 sqm of production area. In 2021, it concluded sales to the value €300 million. Not bad for a business that remains family-owned.

BWF Profiles specifically employs 400 of those staff members, to manufacture a total of 9,000 different plastic profiles at any of its three production facilities in Germany (Offingen and Geretsried), and in China (Wuxi).

That impressive catalogue consists of extruded and thermoformed products, including high-quality plastic profiles, sheets, optical foils, tubes, thermoformed parts, injection-moulded components and a selection of raw materials.

Custom customer creations

If a customer is unable to find exactly what they need across BWF Profiles’ expansive catalogue, the company will gladly design and manufacture bespoke products to suit each client’s needs.

“We develop products alongside our customers,” noted Ms Gall. “We have a big service team. We invite customers to come and see us, to meet the team, see the machinery and discuss their needs and challenges with us.”

BWF Profiles’ custom-fabrication offering is extensive and vast. Ms Gall highlighted some of the company’s facilities: “We have our own colour laboratory where we develop bespoke materials and colours for customers, and we have an in-house research and development department, which is very important for us.

“Our internal tool shop manufactures custom tooling for special orders, and we offer secondary services as well, including CNC cutting, ultrasonic welding, drilling and milling.”

These capabilities mean that BWF Profiles is able to fabricate plastic profiles as well as the end caps to match them – thereby offering a complete product package to customers. This holistic approach to customer needs has yielded robust relationships.

“Most of our customers are long-term partnerships,” Ms Gall revealed. “We have many that have been with us for over 20 years.”

To illustrate the company’s flexibility and technical abilities, the Sales and Marketing Director highlighted a project BWF Profiles completed for a football stadium in France in 2011.

“We had to manufacture very big tubes with specific requirements – they had to be UV stable and had to be wind and weatherproof. Our task was to find the right material and the right design for the job. Meanwhile, the client required that we guarantee the project for ten years. In 2021 we passed the ten-year mark for that installation and we were obviously quite proud of the fact that the products have lasted so long without any problems.”

Sustainability in focus

A major theme of BWF Profiles operational ethos is its emphasis on sustainability, particularly in terms of energy usage but also when it comes to product range.

The company’s head office and primary production facility at Offingen generates a full 65% of its energy requirements from its own renewable sources. 10% of the energy is generated in a carbon-neutral manner through hydroelectric power, 5% is provided by the photovoltaic system on the rooftop and 50% of the electricity requirement is generated by the combined heat and power plant. Meanwhile on the factory floor, the company has a major program in place to manage its waste.

“We’ve developed a product called BWF Regrind, in which we reuse our own plastic waste,” Ms Gall detailed. “The program involves grinding down waste plastics into new granules that can be used again in our manufacturing process.”

The company is also actively testing groundbreaking new environmentally-friendly organic plastic alternatives.

“We’re testing bio-based plastic materials,” she confirmed. “The materials currently available on the market are all quite new, so we’re still busy with the first steps of testing. The good news is that our initial production tests have produced good results, but further testing is still required.”

Manufacturing comes home

In light of the ongoing worldwide shipping crisis amidst Covid restrictions and other challenges, European businesses are increasingly seeking to move their manufacturing needs out of the East and closer to home within Europe. Manufacturers within the EU are benefitting from this increased demand, and BWF Profiles is enjoying an uptick in new enquiries too, confirmed Ms Gall.

“We’ve benefited from enquiries from customers who are currently sourcing from China, but who now want to work with us instead in order to be more independent and enjoy shorter delivery times. Europe is becoming more and more attractive as a manufacturing destination now. I think Covid accelerated the process.

“Customers want more reliability; it’s become really important to them,” she added. “We have to be able to constantly supply,

Silke Gall, Sales and Marketing Director

and at short notice. Interestingly, sometimes the pricing isn’t as crucial to clients anymore; of course it matters but it’s no longer the main factor. Other criteria have become more important.”

Big anniversary plans

In 2022, BWF Profiles’ Offingen site will celebrate its 125th anniversary (the planned events had to be delayed from the actual anniversary date in 2021, due to Covid restrictions). The company will host a big staff party at the end of May, in which the staff’s family members will be invited to take part, and be offered the chance to check out the company’s facilities in more detail.

“It’ll be a day for our staff’s families to come to our facilities,” Ms Gall remarked. “We’ve also got a little program for the children to see where their parents are working. We’re really looking forward to celebrating with everyone that makes this company so special.”

Later in the year, BWF Profiles plans to attend the Light and Building Fair in Frankfurt in October. “It’s one of our most important events – it’s a really big exhibition,” Ms Gall confirmed. Customers and other interested parties are invited to attend the expo and meet the team for a personal consultation.

Throughout 2022 the company plans to invest €30 million into new machinery, equipment, and into building new facilities to capacitate its continued growth.

In concluding, Ms Gall emphasised the company’s customercentric philosophy: “We are a reliable partner with long-term customer relationships and 66 years of expertise. Together with our customers, we are the specialists at finding solutions for the most difficult challenges and requirements.” n

BROVEDANI GROUP I PROFILE

As a leading mass producer of technologically sophisticated mechanical components, Italy’s Brovedani Group is renowned for its presence in the global automotive industry. Now the company is embarking on a path of diversification that will help cement its competencies in new exciting territories and markets. Feature by Andy Probert.

Established in 1972, the Brovedani Group began with just ten people in the north-eastern Italian town of Pordenone, specialising in machining components, initially for the home appliance sector. 50 years on, the group has a worldwide presence employing 1,000 people across seven companies at ten production units with its line of business including several manufacturing technologies for the automotive and non-automotive sectors.

“Given our long-established partnerships, we supply into Tier 1 suppliers for the automotive sector, and conceivably, there is one

component in every car on every street somewhere in Europe that Brovedani made,” commented Group President Sergio Barel.

In the 1980s, Brovedani became a key components supplier to the computer market for the likes of IBM, but when the technology changed, shifting away from the traditional PC mainframes to what they are today, Brovedani transitioned its knowledge base to the automotive sector.

Mr Barel said: “At the beginning of the 1990s, the company was focused on the powertrain development that moved into injection systems for gasoline cars and later in diesel solutions. The development of fuel consumption and emission control in Europe was fundamentally a big driver in Brovedani’s growth.”

Major export driver

Brovedani began producing mechanical components for major Italian companies before becoming an essential supplier to global companies such as Bosch, BorgWarner, Eaton, Denso, Continental, Hidria, Hitachi, Marelli, Benteler, MAHLE, Sanden, Thyssenkrupp, and Vitesco.

Mr Barel added: “We exploded our production, leveraged our know-how in the machining competencies, and helped cement our global presence. 80% of business is export, supplying to clients in 40 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.”

In Italy, Brovedani’s components division comprises a logistics hub and three production plants in San Vito al Tagliamento and Modugno, Bari, which specialises in pistons for brakes application.

It also established a production plant in Galanta, Slovakia, in 2004, and at Querétaro, in Mexico, in 2009, which is well-equipped to support small, medium and high quantity batches through the use of CNC and Swiss-Type turning machines,

BROVEDANI GROUP I PROFILE

multi-spindle turning machines, mechanical and CNC transfer machines.

The division produces significant volumes of components and small quantities of specialist units for the electric auto sectors. Together, they produce 200 million parts per year – with tolerances down to a tenth of a micron – while utilising 50 different steels and metallic materials, with the aid of 30 integrated manufacturing technologies.

Sales and Business Development Director, Francesco De Luna, commented Brovedani’s components, which are applied in many hybrid vehicles and electric cars applications, include brakes systems, sensors, and acclimatisation systems. These are supplied into a majority of the top 50 Tier 1 suppliers in the automotive industry.

The group has invested heavily in advanced manufacturing and control systems to produce the most sophisticated, highquality mechanical components. Advanced engineering services allow the development of dedicated products processes, such as designing and manufacturing custom-made machines, automation, machines for visual and dimensional automatic control, and integrated multi-technologies.

New goals

The company has begun to diversify its customer base in the last few years, particularly in the US. There was enormous opportunity and potential to expand there, while also operating in new markets in industrial applications.

At the height of the pandemic in 2020, Brovedani and four metalworking companies from North East Italy – Costam, Mevis, Pettarini and Pezzutti – joined forces to create the A3 Alliance for the Art of Assembly.

The A3 Alliance offers to the international market a complete range of products and processes and exceptional know-how from each company that delivers authentic added value and elevates their competitive advantage. The network of manufacturers provide end-to-end contract manufacturing solutions with more than 120 technologies and more than 300 years of combined expertise, all within a 50km radius of each other.

Mr Barel added: “With our partners, we are cooperating to supply not only components but sub-groups such as mechanical, plastic and assembly. For example, the A3 Alliance would go to a potential or established customer and seek not only to supply a single component, but look to simplify their lives by offering to supply a whole complex supply chain to meet their complete demands.

“This alliance offers many competencies under one single solutions hub, offers a new added value proposition and a complete supply chain of high quality. A client can benefit from just one interface, but we have everything aligned to meet all their demands.”

He added: “Brovedani is also diversifying by targeting potentially significant markets in the e-mobility space for two and threewheeled vehicles, not only with mechanical components, but also hydraulics and other sub-group assemblies.

“We also follow the new emerging markets in hydrogen, and are now developing products in co-operation with clients. We are also benefitting from new regional supply networks that have reorganised following the impact of the pandemic.”

One important positive is that Brovedani quickly adapted to the pandemic and organised its business units to be flexible to daily industry demands which was a critical success.

Reflecting on the challenges ahead, Mr Barel said that handling the business’

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editorial mention

BROVEDANI GROUP I PROFILE

ongoing diversification, recruiting the right talent, managing that change, and new technology directions, were the main priorities.

“On the latter, we have an ongoing project in R&D, and we are now in a position to produce some components with metal 3D printing,” he revealed. With sustainability a key factor, the company, through the A3 Alliance, is responding through an effective supply chain infrastructure and seeking improved emission targets.

“In the last year, there has been an acceleration in achieving sustainability and where possible, we are trying to put in place alternative power sources. It will be a long journey, but the automotive industry is one of the leaders in this regard,” asserted Mr de Luna.

The ability to manage different technologies under one roof, handle its client portfolio and continue finding new markets were the key differentiators for Brovedani, he asserted.

Look to the long-term

Mr De Luna said: “Our precision mechanics expertise is not something others have done. Customers have told us our state-of-the-art plant in Mexico in which we have invested €30 million in the last ten years, is considered a benchmark in that region,” he added. “We have the same modern technology levels in Mexico as we do in Italy and Slovakia.”

Looking to build long-term relationships with suppliers and clients, Brovedani approaches them as partners, with clear business parameters that help build transparency, trust and loyalty.

Mr De Luna said: “Automotive is a very connective industry with a long-term view. You need to be consistent with your activities. We respect each other and realise we have a long journey together to ensure both win.

“The Brovedani Group comes from a history where it does not shy away from redefining, redesigning and reinventing itself. The company adjusts to new markets and new demands. We will leverage this approach to remain as a leading company in the future, which may well be different from what we are doing today.”

Mr Barel concluded: “Automotive is going through an epochal revolution. Years ago, Brovedani built precision mechanics for computers that are absent today. We are ready to reorganise ourselves again and look to new sectors.” n www.brovedanigroup.com