Mr. Jürgen Köppel, President of Eumabois and CEO of Leitz Group spoke to Mr. Amit Tekale, Editor of Modern Woodwork during Ligna 2019. This include a range of topics – from Leitz’s immediate future plans for India and its new platform LeitzXPress to how Leitz aspires to become number one brand in every global market.
Opportunities for Leitz in India
Leitz have already been in India since long time and for us it is always an important market. We have various subsidiaries in India with our head office in Bengaluru. We have presence in Delhi and Mumbai as well. We know where our customers are. We are going to increase our footprint in India because I am strong believer in the future of India. As the earlier democratic government has been re-elected for a term of another five years, I am seeing stability and continuity in policies in this largest democracy of the world. This is a very good atmosphere for driving the investments into India. At the same time, the local industry is developing very well, not only small and medium scale customers but also the footprint of bigger industries. For me, as a CEO of Leitz, it is a very important market and we will invest even more in India in the near future.
Know-how to cater Indian market
The important aspect while catering any global market is whether you have service and knowhow available. We at Leitz can support Indian customers with our service. Hence, our strategy is to develop the footprint even further with more service centres. Because the proximity to the customer is very important for success. Another advantage of India is its very well educated people who can be trained easily on service and through them we can transfer our latest know-how from Germany into India to remain ahead of the market.
Offering services to other manufactures
We are very open minded when it comes to offering services to other manufacturers. Hence, if we receive tools made up by our competitors for servicing, we shall ensure the same qualified service as we do for Leitz tools. This way the customer can see our service and experience how efficient we are. This will ensure that the customer come to us for further servicing and perhaps choose Leitz while buying a new tool in the future.
Plans for rolling out LeitzXPress
Digitalisation is a very important aspect. But at the same time we have to deal with tooling, tool systems produced by Leitz and they shall be supported by adequate digital system. That’s why we have launched LeitzXPress. What we always do is first implement any new system in Germany and then in Europe. Once we are fully convince we launch this new service in India. We are planning a worldwide launch of LeitzXPress by early 2020 and if we plan to participate in IndiaWood, which is scheduled in February-March 2020 at Bengaluru then it will be an ideal platform to launch this new service in India.
We are planning a worldwide launch of our digital solution – LeitzXPress by early 2020 and if we plan to participate in IndiaWood, which is scheduled in February-March 2020 at Bengaluru then it will be an ideal platform to launch this new service in India.
– Mr. Jürgen Köppel, President of Eumabois, CEO of Leitz Group
Plan to increase service centres in India
We are all set to increase our footprint in India and have been taking some strategic decisions in this regard. Currently we have five service centres in India and another one or two will be added by the Bengaluru show (IndiaWood 2020), as I am a firm believer in proximity, good logistics and optimum support to the customer.
Target of becoming number one in every global market
Yes, we do face competition from local players as well as from other global players. We, as a world market leader with almost EUR 250 million turnover, are aware that we have to be excellent in every market. Can we be the number one in every market? Even though it’s difficult, it’s our target. To make that happen, we need to convince our customers that is worthwhile to invest a bit more in Leitz’s tooling compared to local brands. Because there is definitely an advantage for investing in Leitz tooling on parameters like cost per piece, cost per meter or the overall lifecycle cost compared to local tooling brands. If we look at other global competitors, they also know how to do it; but there is one important aspect i.e. service. Leitz, with its 120 service centres across the globe, can give the customer an excellent support and satisfaction and this also brings us ahead of the European competition.
Impressions about LIGNA 2019
In LIGNA, we have been receiving queries from a lot of international customers, not just from China but from Japan, India and also from US, Canada and South America. So, LIGNA is definitely ‘The Show’ if you want to look into advanced technology and modern production centres. At the same time, there are a range of solutions available for small and medium scale industries here. I am really happy with achievements on the show and with the fact that lot of people from foreign countries have attended the show and they are very much interested in our solutions.
