Insight

Valenta ZT has been active in the fastener market since 1995, becoming an important supplier for customers in the distribution chain of standard fasteners. Supplying not only to the construction industry, but also to other sectors such as engineering, power engineering and civil engineering.

Valenta ZT started as a one-man operation, with owner Stephan Valenta slowly growing the business to the company it is today. Stephan comments: “It wasn’t until the 2000s that we really started to develop, which was when we made the decision to start manufacturing threaded rod – as there was not much available on the market in the Czech Republic.”

Valenta soon realised there was a lot of competition and bigger players when it came to standard threaded rod, so with that in mind it decided to simply trade in the standard range of threaded rods and focus on manufacturing the niche threaded rod products – where it was more competitive.

“The big volumes of standard threaded rod we imported and we focused our manufacturing on other grades like 5.6, 5.8, 8.8, 10.9 and 12.9, as well as specials such as trapezoidal threaded spindles and drawing parts, as well as larger diameters and length,” points out Stephan. “We also found that for these special threaded rod products customers also prefer to work with European mill materials and require the products to be supported by quality certificates. So this proved a very successful area for us.”

For the threaded rod it produces, Valenta uses thread rolling processes, as it finds this has many advantages including an increase in strength by means of cold forming; very good surface roughness values; as well as high dimensional accuracy. “As part of our production we can offer thread rolling, cutting, bending, cold drawing, and CNC machining, which enables us to meet our customers’ needs,” mentions Stephan. “If a customer cannot find what they need within our portfolio, we can also work alongside them to offer customised production.”

Valenta is able to supply threaded rod in a wide variety of materials, from low grade steels to high strength alloys and stainless steels, and typical production can vary from a handful of larger parts to orders of tens of thousands of pieces.  “We are very proud of our production capabilities and have recently moved the production into a new facility, which is 4,000m2 and based on the same site as our existing operations,” highlights Stephan. “This has provided even more space for us to increase our capacity so we can be even quicker in meeting customers’ needs.”

Whilst manufacturing accounts for a third of Valenta’s sales, the trade of standard products still accounts for two thirds of the business. The key range of goods available from Valenta includes standardised fasteners such as screws, bolts, nuts, washers, threaded rods, as well as timber connectors, pole anchors, fence components and nuts. “Most of the standard DIN products we import from Asia,” explains Stephan. “We have built very good partnerships with the suppliers and we regularly check the quality of the products, as well as the production processes that are used.”

To further guarantee the quality of the products, Valenta is continuously investing in modern production equipment and its quality management system. It has also updated its laboratory to include machines that can carry out hardness, optical measurement, X-ray spectrometer and straightness measuring tests. “When we first started producing threaded rod, we committed ourselves to the highest quality and this includes not only the products we produce, but also the products we import,” states Stephan.

This was underlined a few years ago when there were several cases of substandard threaded rod – with incorrect pitch thread – entering the market. “This caused a real problem within the market because you had low cost products bringing down the margin, but it did not meet the standards,” explains Stephan. “The standard requires a pitch thread of 60 degrees and we committed to this whether it was something we imported or whether it was something we produced. The substandard products had a pitch thread of around 48 degrees angle and this made them around 10% cheaper than the standard price.”

Stephan continues: “We did lose some of our market as customers’ were tempted with the lower price, but we stuck to our values. This benefited us in the long run, as customers who had been enticed by the cheaper price found they were receiving claims from their customers regarding the quality of the threaded rod and it not being fit for purpose. They came back to us as customers and respected our decision to stay committed to the higher quality. There is less of this type of product in the market now, because customers have become more aware of the situation and the consequences, but there are still occasions where this type of substandard product arrives. We refuse to compete with the substandard quality, so we point out the differences and leave it to the customer to make the right decision.”

Through its commitment to quality, niche manufacturing, and production range, Valenta has been able to establish itself within the market – with more than 90% of its products being sold to customers across Europe. “Being based in the Czech Republic means we are actually very central within Europe, so we can cover a lot of different markets very easily,” mentions Stephan. “Ten years ago exports accounted for around 30% of sales, but it now accounts for 60% and there is still further opportunity to grow. Our largest market is the Czech Republic, then come the neighbouring countries such as Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Austria and then other countries as well. We also have customers in other continents, but our main business remains in Europe.”

Stephan concludes: “Thanks to our new facility we have a lot more production and warehouse space and we want to add even more capacity to be able to offer more flexibility with orders and reduce lead times. New machinery and equipment can be acquired at competitive prices right now, due to the impact of Covid-19, and the engineers and designers are not as busy, so we are taking this opportunity to get them involved more in the processes we use and how we can optimise our business. We look forward to continuing to develop as a company and supplying customers with the products, service and quality they have come to expect from Valenta.” 

www.valentazt.com