Insight

Having quadrupled its sales turnover since 2017, the most recent challenge for Halfmann Schrauben GmbH has been to continue to build on this strong growth. Despite the resistance of recent months, Edis Civic, managing director at Halfmann Schrauben, outlines how the company’s recent investments in storage capacity, as well as a new building, will enable it to achieve this growth. 

We look back at the last two years fondly, with 2022 a very successful year for many fastener companies. For many, it was even the best year in history. Halfmann Schrauben managed to increase our sales and tonnage figures and supply our customers with a very large product portfolio. In addition to our numerous imports, we also supply both industry and trade with many special and drawing parts. Our product range also consists of over 70,000 DIN parts and 30,000 customer related connective elements. 

In order for us to build on the strong growth of recent years, we decided to expand our warehouse in Essen, Germany to increase our existing storage capacity by 30%. We started the expansion back in 2022 and the finished building now covers 800m² and provides an extra 2,000 pallet spaces. The expansion has enabled us to continue to grow our capacity and capabilities, as well as ensuring a better availability of our products for customers. In addition, with the additional space gained, and the additional loading options, we are able to significantly increase the efficiency of the warehouse organisation, including storage and retrieval.

Automation is the key to our success. The days of having an above-average number of employees are over and we will no longer be competitive if we only rely on manpower. Turnover per head is very important to me and our figures – a €20 million turnover with an average of 28 employees is something we are very proud of.

Today’s customers are in a hurry, which is why we are also looking at ways in which we can make steps to be more efficient and improve as a business. For instance, the Halfmann webshop provides all 70,000 available items – with ‘real time’ stock levels and customer specific prices – immediately as a source of information without having to make any further clicks.

At the same time as these investments, we have also built a completely new warehouse in Remscheid, Germany, near the headquarters of our group of companies. This warehouse is designed only for complete pallets, and enables us to utilise our capacities in the best possible way. Halfmann tries to be competitive in several product groups and our purchasing strategy must reflect this. For example, the new Remscheid warehouse enables us to import two pallets of M8 x 20 hexagon head screw in different grades, instead of ten pallets of a normal 8.8, which almost every other dealer imports and stocks themselves. This makes Halfmann a reliable partner for many article groups and we plan to focus on new markets in the future.

A current trend in joining technology is the focus on energy and resource efficient processes. Increasingly strict environmental regulations and growing awareness of environmental protection are driving developments towards more sustainable joining methods. We have benefited greatly from this so far and have gained numerous new customers in the solar sector over the last 12 months.

We want to continue to grow and gain even more market share, especially in the retail sector. We now supply over 50 different countries worldwide and want to further increase our export targets. A vital part of our success is also our ability to partner with customers – both trade and industry. It is the flexibility, service and reliability that characterises us. We specialise in procuring everything for our customers, and thanks to our large global supplier network we are a real specialist and the perfect partner.