Driven by innovation Atlas

DRIVEn By InnoVaTIon

The German company Atlas GmbH boasts a heritage of almost a hundred years, but its modern history really began seven years ago under its new owner Fil Filipov. Romana Moares spoke to Brahim Stitou, the managing director who turned the business around, not only about what makes this traditional company so special but also about his unorthodox management methods that have changed a loss-making business into an international success.

Atlas, headquartered in Ganderkesee in northern Germany, manufactures a wide range of machines for the construction, railroad, material handling and infrastructure industries. In the one hundred years since its establishment, the company has gone through various stages of development, some less successful than others. In 2001, struggling financially, the business was taken over by the Terex Corporation but sadly continued to fail and ten years later ended up nearly bankrupt with too many staff and losses of about €2.2 million a month. In 2010 it was sold yet again to the private owner and former Terex executive Fil Filipov, ready – despite the scepticism of many – to be turned around.

From bottom to top

“The former Terex management offered me a position outside Atlas but I decided to stay. I knew Fil and really liked his no-fuss action-focused management style. So I put all my efforts into improving the company’s performance,” recalls Brahim Stitou, who has a very personal experience of what it takes to achieve success. Born and raised in Germany by Moroccan parents, he is one of those great success stories who worked his way up from the bottom. Starting as an apprentice on the shop floor in Atlas in 1996, with no formal education, he always knew that he could do better. After completing his evening classes, his career took off. “I always looked for more efficient, better ways of doing things; I wanted to achieve things. For this I was prepared to work really hard. When Terex sold Atlas to Fil, I saw this as a big opportunity and knew that I wanted to be involved in bringing the company into the black,” he said.

The rest is history. Under Brahim Stitou’s management the company re-claimed its traditional name of Atlas as well as its original orange colour. Pushing for results was not without obstacles, but as early as the end of the year (2010) the business achieved a breakeven point, followed by profitable performance only a year later – for the first time in 25 years. In 2012 Mr Stitou became the vice-

president of the company and, in 2013, the managing director and a member of the Board of Directors UK. He is also the managing director of Atlas Components, located in southern Germany, which is where the group makes components for the Atlas Machines and others. SPS (Spare Parts and Services), a new company established in 2012, is based at the headquarters in Ganderkesee near to the production of Cranes and Excavators so even if there are urgent parts, Atlas can take it from the production.This company is handled by Britta Frey who is its managing director.

About 75 per cent of the business is generated in Germany and (mainly) central Europe, while the rest is sold worldwide.

Mr Stitou is not your typical corporate manager. He holds no meetings, neither does he hide in his office – he prefers individual discussions, likes to be where the action is and expects the same from his management team. And it seems to work. With an annual output of about 900 excavators and between 1700 and 2000 cranes, the company now employs about 500 people and achieves a turnover of roughly €200 million. In the past seven years, the Atlas brand name has been successfully re-established and now supplies customers around the globe with a wide range of state-of-the-art machines and equipment.

Customer first

Atlas’s current product range includes cranes, wheeled, crawler and rail-road excavators and material handlers and also Wheel Loaders, Tunneling Machines with combustion engines and electric drives. “Innovations are what is driving us: my job every day is to constantly remind people in our company to do better, to listen to customers, always accommodate their wishes and make sure they get exactly what they desire, always. If they want a Sony music system in the cab, we will build it,” says Mr Stitou.

He points out that in the last few months basically all machines have been changed and redesigned. Almost all excavators are already available in the recent ‘Tier 4 final version’. “The safety level is now just below that of aircraft,” he says proudly. In addition to this, some of the

electrical material handlers now work completely emission-free, and in the loader crane segment new folding cranes are available.

But the company is also focusing on extending its product range – in addition to excavators and cranes, it now also offers loaders and cutters for the tunnelling business and has increased its output for the military sector (military cranes, recovery cranes) not only in Europe but also in distant countries such as Oman and India.

Atlas’s added advantage is its ability to combine products and offer something which competitors simply can’t. Several years ago, for example, it fitted a double cab (used on a different product) to a material handling machine for training purposes, allowing the trainer to sit next to the driver. “Again, the customer was highly satisfied and, unlike our competitors, this solution did not cost us millions. All we had to do was to re-install the double cab from one machine to another,” says Brahim Stitou. Best of its kind

The company has a growing dealer network covering 30 locations, more than 120 service points in Germany and 120 locations in Europe, while its global presence is also increasing. About 75 per cent of the business is generated in Germany and (mainly) central Europe, while the rest is sold worldwide. The next stage is to focus on strengthening its position further afield, particularly in the US (where a subsidiary, Atlas USA, is to be opened soon), Argentina and Chile. The planned growth will be supported by the two new companies: Atlas SPS (the company currently stocks about €10 million worth in spare parts, enabling a 95 per cent availability); and Atlas Group Service, established to provide technical support to dealers worldwide. These are managed respectively by Uwe Hinrichs, Ralf Ostendorf and Hans-Günther Neumann.

“I want Atlas to stand for the best in our market segment,” says the managing director. “Customer satisfaction is our absolute prior-

ity. I don’t care what it costs but the customer must be satisfied.” The other attributes he wants to further promote are an even better attentiveness to customer needs, cost-effective production, high availability and user-friendliness. “The machine has to be as simple as possible for the end user. When you get your new BMW, you don’t want to be reading the manual to work out how to drive the car,” he explains. Atlas’s new self-folding crane, for instance, has just one button to fold it up or in. The company is also unique in terms of the speed with which it handles warranty claims – it now takes only five days to get feedback, and is striving to get this down to two.

“A crisis is also an opportunity to do something differently, better. The development of our company in the past seven years is a good illustration of how, when handled well, a crisis is positive,” says Brahim Stitou. “Against all odds, we are getting stronger and winning business from well established competitors. We are not the cheapest and we don’t even want to be. We want to be number one for customers in terms of high quality, high performing machines with excellent customer support,” he concludes.