Performance counts

Münzing are still a family-run business, with two family members currently on the management board. Today, the number of employees totals around 120 with annual production of around 24,000 tonnes of chemicals. The company relocated to their current premises in Heilbronn after the Second World War and, here, the facilities continued to expand with new buildings added 16 years ago and a new warehouse built about one year ago. 'At the moment, we are about 100% booked, that's working from around 6am to 2pm, five days a week', explains Eckardt Häuser, manager of the leather business unit. 'But we have the capacity to produce about 2.5 times that amount if the market improved and we were to work shifts and at weekends.' The company's facilities include 25 reactors, ranging in size from 500 litres to 25,000 litres, with the majority holding around 10,000-12,000 litres. Münzing Chemie also produce chemicals for the paint, ink, effluent treatment, paper and metal industries. In terms of volume, the company produce mostly leather chemicals in Germany, but their paint and ink chemicals are as important. All the reactors and processing facilities are completely automated and most of them are multi-purpose reactors. The company's filling station consists of 16 tanks, again all are used for the company's entire range of products. About 160 tonnes of products can be filled each day and to ensure there is no cross-pollution, a sample is taken from the first and last drum of each batch and carefully analysed. 'The majority of our leather chemicals do not stay in our warehouse', explains Häuser. 'Around 80% of our leather orders are directly processed on order. The rest are ex-stock. This figure is less for our other departments, but leather consumption can be predicted more accurately.' With everything fully automated, the company have reduced their workforce in the factory by more than half over the past ten years, but production has tripled over the same period. Environmental concerns As around 45% of the company's leather chemicals are marine-oil based, it is necessary to oxidise the oil. The air from the oxidising plant is then burnt before release in order to meet the high environmental standards. Around 30 years ago, the company produced 95% of their products from marine oils but this figure has been reduced due to the latest requirements for modern leather types. Following the 1986 chemical disaster on the Rhine river, environmental protection laws were tightened. When walking around Münzing's facilities, all of the buildings where the chemicals pass through are protected by an external barrier that would prevent any contamination of the environment if there was any accident at the company's facilities. The company also practice a policy of analysing all incoming material before anything is offloaded from the trucks into the company's storage facilities. This process only takes one or two hours and ensures there are no difficulties further down the production process. Confidence for the future 'Business has been going well, in particular in South America, but currently we are being hit by the strong euro', explains Haüser. 'Last year, we were faced with the SARS virus and the beginnings of the war in Iraq. This year it is the strong euro - each year we are faced with a new challenge. 'Our competitors in Europe have been faced with the same problems but the strong euro is benefiting non-European producers.' Haüser explains that currency fluctuations have pushed local selling prices up since the beginning of 2003. Despite a problematic climate, he also explains that Münzing Chemie finished 2003 with the same good result as 2002. Looking further into the future, Haüser added that Münzing Chemie aim to increase sales by 100% over the next ten years, both in the leather division and across the whole company. 'This is something we managed to attain over the past ten years and we hope that we can achieve it again. This will come about through organic growth and, in addition, we may have plans for acquisitions.' An expanding market Haüser continued by explaining that in order to achieve this increase in growth, the company are planning to look into new sales areas, for example Russia, and are also aiming to establish a new customer service centre in Asia in the next two years. 'Financially, it is not viable for us to set up our own production facilities in Asia', says Haüser. Münzing Chemie and their agents have laboratories in the USA, Brazil, India, Spain, Argentina and Mexico, with a new laboratory in Thailand and a new laboratory under construction in China. In Italy, Münzing Srl are located in Arzignano, with sub-agents in Sante Croce and Solofra. Italy is the company's single biggest market so Münzing Chemie took the decision five years ago to establish their own company there. 'Ten years ago, Münzing Chemie was only Münzing Chemie in Germany with a subsidiary in Holland', explains Jürgen Hofmann, managing director. 'Now, Münzing Chemie are a group of companies active all over the world. We have a production facility in the US for the metal and coatings industries, so we do have the option to produce on two continents. 'We have had problems with the fish oil supply over the past few years, mostly due to El Niño. The fish oil supply lowered and the price increased, so it made us reconsider our focus. So we have placed much more of an emphasis on polymers and synthetics recently, especially for retanning and waterproofing as well as on fatliquors which provide much better light and heatfastness properties.' The majority of Münzing Chemie's products are wet-end and fatliquoring products and are produced for the upholstery market, for garments and shoes. In the latter, the company's particular strength lies in waterproofing. The future for Münzing Chemie will be chrome-free leathers as well as modern chrome leathers with high fastness properties not only for car interiors and upholstery but also for garment and shoe upper leathers (waterproof and non-waterproof). Quality and performance The company's motto is Performance Counts. 'This is what defines us', explains Hofmann. 'It proves to our customers that they can produce something different or something better if they chose Münzing Chemie's products, either through quality, reliability, service or cost reductions. We do not believe in selling our products, instead we want to make our customers want to buy our products.' Münzing Chemie are both ISO 9001 and 14001 certified. 'We also consider ourselves a fast-responding company, not only here in Germany but also through our agents and subsidiaries worldwide who can supply and service quickly from their available local stock', adds Hofmann. 'For example, a customer came to us on Tuesday at Tanning Tech in October 2003 and he wanted something delivered overseas the following Monday. The goods were sent by air and arrived the Friday before. 'We want to ensure that the customer realises that he is never alone. Our staff are available around the clock and our customers know that we can be relied on.'