Maplan sets sights on U.S. and Asia

DUESSELDORF, Germany—Having moved 25 miles to an expanded new facility in Austria, Maplan is planning to grow sales of its rubber molding machines in both North America and Asia—the latter through the establishment of a new production facility.

The relocation, from its long-time base of Ternitz to the Euro12 million facility in Kottingbrunn, Austria, has enabled the Austrian company to introduce more efficient machine-building production—and doubled its machine manufacturing capacity in the process.

The new facility will enable Maplan to reduce assembly times by 30 percent, while also improving quality and consistency, according to Wolfgang Meyer, managing director. This, he noted, also has benefited the cost structure.

Maplan's sales in 2015 reached Euro 45 million, a record for the company, which has also seen its work force grow from 140 to 220 employees over the last five years.

Around 40 percent of business is currently in Europe, 30 percent in the U.S., with the rest in other locations around the world. The long-term goal, though is a market share profile of about third in each of the three main global regions.

And with the relocation now complete, an important target for Maplan is to grow in North America, Meyer said, “In my opinion the U.S. business can grow quite massively.”

While Maplan is strong in the European automotive market, this is not the case in the U.S., where the company's machines are used more for more molding industrial seals and other parts, such as for the oil industry.

Meyer's target is that Maplan is No. 1 or minimum No. 2 in all (the main) business fields: “Then you really play a role and if you take all of this together you are up to minimum doubling your turnover.

“So maybe with a time frame of three years or four years, I would say that should be possible. But the target is to grow sustainably, not to grow as fast as possible.”

Even more interesting, perhaps, is Maplan's other target: Asia, where the company only supplies into major groups such as Parker, which have, for instance, global automotive strategies requiring machines that are standardized worldwide.

“The next big step is to work out a strategy for how to become a supplier for the local market in China,” Meyer said. This, he said, “will happen in the next three years, maybe by the next K show. Five years is too long. The move, he added, will be necessary due to the cost of transporting machines over there.

The goal, therefore, is to have a manufacturing operation, producing Maplan's own machine-types rather than “a cooperation with someone who takes technology from wherever.”

But, the managing director emphasized, the “high-end machines that we are building in Austria will always be built in Austria. We don't want to cannibalize ourselves and make the same machine in China because everyone will ask for a Chinese-built machine with the same specifications as a machine built in Austria.”

Meyer concluded: “So in China you will have say a medium machine with a quality standard that will fit perfectly into the market. This includes from a price point, which is very important.”