Konrad Baur

Small company, big targets

The young and active high-tech company, Konrad Baur GmbH, from Bad Schussenried in Germany, entered the RV market 12 years ago and started a significant growth mainly in production of doors for storage and gas compartments and entrance doors for caravans and motorhomes. Konrad Baur GmbH is now launching a range of products with its customizable line of driver cabin doors for motorhomes

Words Enrico Bona

Konrad Baur GmbH is a small company which thanks to its passion and commitment to clear targets has grown fast to a position of technological leadership in the RV sector. Its secret, in addition to its high level of knowledge and experience, is that it is still a family business. It was founded by Konrad Baur, currently CEO Managing Partner, and is now run by CEO Benjamin Baur, 37 years old. This ensures the Baur family makes a big difference in approaching the client’s needs and listens to customer feedback. Konrad Baur GmbH entered the RV market in 2007 and started by producing and supplying an order for storage and gas doors for the Hymer Group. “We started from a garage with just three people,” says Benjamin Baur; ”From that small initial order, built without even a contract and only on the basis of a hand shake, Hymer Group tested how well we worked and later we were given an official contract from them, so we immediately started to invest in improving our knowledge in order to offer the market other products and make our business grow. The main point for our success so far, was the core team at Baur that performed strongly through many ups and downs during the company´s history”.

From the beginning, the range of Baur’s products expanded and raised its technological level with more and more innovation and design. Now the company is a well-known European producer of entrance doors (8,000 units delivered per year) and storage and gas locker doors for mobile homes and caravans (20,000 units). Konrad Baur GmbH can also boast a particularly green production process that recycles a high percentage of raw material waste, with an almost complete energy sustainability thanks to photovoltaic panels that produce over 400,000 kWh per year and even the introduction of a totally reusable delivery packaging that does not produce waste.

New range: driver cabin doors

A new division, created in 2021, launches the Konrad Baur GmbH’s range of customizable driver’s cab doors. Baur now employs 38 people, working in a brand new 4000 m² facility and once again, has invested in its future by introducing the driver’s cab door. This is a technologically demanding and competitive product that will lay the foundation of a third important pillar for the business after storage and gas doors and entrance doors, and give more stability to the business. By starting to deliver driver cabin doors, Baur can offer clients the advantage of providing every exterior door for the motorhome from a single, reliable premium supplier. Doors and the driver cabin doors specifically, are a very demanding and ambitious product to be engineered. The goal for Konrad Baur GmbH when developing the system was to offer the customer a product that is totally customizable, from technical details to the exterior design, plus durable over time and cost effective for the production process. After more than one year in design by the R&D division, Konrad Baur GmbH focused on the main issues related to driver’s doors: stabilization, rotation, running of the window, complete and customizable integration into client’s design with an eye on the end user’s safety. The new driver cabin doors will be on display for marketing and technical experts from the manufacturer brands on the Konrad Baur GmbH booth at the Caravan Salon 2021 in Düsseldorf. Baur’s driver cabin doors have been engineered in order to be suitable for most motorhomes by only a few fine-tuning for sizes. The design and the assembly process itself has also been designed for maximum flexibility and simplicity during assembly.

Stock

In addition to significantly strengthening its product range with the introduction of driver cabin doors, Baur has also increased its investments in stock, in order to prevent any slowdown in deliveries of raw materials or components from the network of reliable suppliers that Konrad Baur GmbH has developed in both Europe and Asia. According indeed to Benjamin Baur’s vision, 2021 will be a particularly engaging time for the supply chain: ”Sales and enquiries confirm that the demand for RVs and outdoor holidays is very high and our market is enjoying really good times and is optimistic for the future. We are happy with our supply chain, our partners and that we managed the right expertise in 2020 to overcome difficulties in provisioning and collecting raw materials and components”.

Market

Currently, some big groups are already interested in the driver cabin door system and the company is now ready to supply the whole market. The high demand for these products goes together with the small number of premium and complete suppliers of doors. “This is the type of alternative supplier we want to be for our customers: a smaller and faster company which can enter the big game and provide excellent service, knowhow, flexibility and innovation,” comments Benjamin Baur. ”We have a high level of trust from our customers because we are able to manage our business risks, in preventing ups and downs in production and into our supply chain. We really take care to always keep the dialogue open with our clients at all times,” continued Benjamin Baur. “With the driver cabin doors introduction into our product range, we complete the circle as a premium door supplier for the global RV market. Now our company is ready to face any challenge in this business. Europe is, and always will be, our reference market and the market, especially, we owe our success and growth to. We know that and we will stay focused on the European evolution of our business and technologies. We currently mostly work with Germany, France, Slovenia, Netherlands, South Korea and Turkey. We are now structured and ready to open to extra European markets and some manufacturers from USA, Australia, Japan and UK have already made contact with us,” said Benjamin Baur. Baur is sure that all its products are already designed to easily overcome all European certifications: “We are ready and want to be part of the entire global industry, but we also want to enter different markets just when our presence will be really needed and strategic.”