Another record year for DESMA, the company is preparing for further expansion

However, the managing directors, Mr Martin Schürmann and Mr Harald Zebedin, PhD, have been regarding the market situation as increasingly difficult already since October 2018.

This is especially noticeable in the decrease of the order intake in the automotive sales segment that has hit almost all international markets, some of them drastically, as well as in the general international economic uncertainty that can be observed in the other sales segments as well. Currently, order inflow is 35% lower compared to the previous year’s level.

Fig. 1: DESMA Managing Directors Martin Schürmann (l) and Harald Zebedin, PhD (r)

But DESMA is continuing its growth path in the long run and the next 3 years will see investments to the amount of 22 million Euro flowing to all 5 sites of DESMA Group which has facilities also in Slovakia, India, China and USA.

These plans include the purchase agreement for the BÖRSIG site that neighbours DESMA’s property in Fridingen with an area of 33,000 sqm that has already been signed and notarially certified. “The price is a secret. This was done to guarantee the necessary room for future expansion as part of the plan to secure the company’s site in Germany”, said Martin Schürmann.

Fig. 2: DESMA at Fridingen

Furthermore, following an investment of 2.3 million Euro, a fully automated lathing and milling centre with a planned annual capacity of 7,200 operating hours was just commissioned at the site in Fridingen. This investment serves to increase value creation and decrease lead times.

Fig. 3: DESMA is investing in the latest machining technologies

“Even with the downsizing of flexible working times contracts in progress and with the prospect of having to use shot-time workforce in some organizational units due to a virtually non-existent market improvement, DESMA remains resilient and well positioned”, said Schürmann. According to him, the company is using the current phase to make the necessary adjustments in terms of process optimisation and product development. By way of example, the company is currently in the process of making a massive investment in the new ERP and PLM system that will standardise DESMA’s business and production processes throughout the world, which is currently being implemented as a project under the name ‘Digital Core’. DESMA is currently employing a staff of 604.