For a few years now LNS, the Swiss builder of bar feeders founded in 1975, has repositioned its worldwide activities as a global provider of peripherals for machine-tools. To discuss this strategy and the future, we’ve met with Thomas H. Boehmer, Chief Executive Officer and Romain Sumi, Chief Marketing Officer of the LNS Group.
For nearly 40 years the company developed customer oriented bar loading solutions and then through several strategic acquisitions, the main product range has evolved and been drastically complemented.
Passing from the specialist of bar loading to a more global player seems quite a bold move, why this radical change? Even if we are a global player, we are very close to the markets and breed deep relationships with our sales and service network, OEMs, dealers and agents. Around 2000, it became clear that over time, the business of bar feeding would not be growing steadily in western markets, and our strategy was to add another product family to our product range in order to diversify our offering, and better serve our customer base worldwide. There are a lot of machine-tools that don’t use feeding devices, even in the lathe and turning industry, so we decided it was time to diversify our product range. We wanted to maintain our area of knowledge and so other peripherals were quite logical. We started in the US market, as it was more prepared for it and then started our focus on Europe 5 years ago. In Asia we are still mainly known for bar feeding systems.
Selling devices that pushes bars or a complete set of peripherals to the service of a customer is very different market, was it easy to implement such a change? To sell peripherals that work well according to the customers’ need, we must be close to them to understand what they really want and need. They can be widely different from one customer to another, from one field of activity to another and from one country to another. In that regard, we are planning and thinking globally but acting locally. Our approach of offering tailored solutions to customers has always been critical, and maintaining this priority while expanding globally has been recognized as an ongoing challenge demanding our continuous attention. Such a transition is complex and has not been easy. We work hand in hand with key OEM manufacturers of machine tools. We work behind the scenes to offer one complete solution of peripherals that fits with the machine. Nobody offers a global solution like we do.
How does the company take benefits of its locations worldwide? How does it combine industrial logic and marketing to the service of customers worldwide? MM Boehmer and Sumi will answer to these questions and much more in Eurotec’s next issue.
LNS SA 2534 Orvin Switzerland Phone: +41 (0)32 358 02 00 Fax: +41 (0)32 358 02 01 [email protected] www.lns-europe.com
Want to know more about the recent news published on LNS on-line ?
- LNS Group joins with Japanese Yoshida Tekko KK to maximize their global presence
- EMO Hannover: LNS bar feeder innovations in the spotlight
- EMO Hannover: new LNS bar feeders
- LNS Group takes over Italian oil mist collector specialist Fox IFS
- LNS showcases versatile chip conveyor Turbo MH500 The recent articles in Eurotec:
- Innovation at EMO 2011
- Expanding the One-Stop-Shop
- Versatile chip conveyor Turbo MH500
- Peripherals to boost production
