EXECUTIVE Q&A ─ Koenig & Bauer
EXECUTIVE Q&A: KILIAN RENSCHLER, CEO OF KOENIG & BAUER US/CA By Ralf Schlözer
K
ilian Renschler has been named the tools quickly to keep our customers busy. new CEO and president of Koenig We were also happy to grow our market share. & Bauer US/CA at the start of 2021. One of the reasons was that we have a very strong Previously, he was executive vice presiportfolio for packaging customers, not only our dent of sales of Koenig & Bauer US/CA. Rapida presses, but die cutters and folder-gluKilian Renschler has been named the ers. We are seen as experts in this new CEO and president of Koenig & Bauer market and when times get diffiUS/CA at the start of 2021. Previously, he cult customers go to the company was executive vice president of sales of where they feel they get the best Koenig & Bauer US/CA. service and the best consulting. We WhatTheyThink: Having a discussion in saw customers investing in devices early 2021, there is no way not to touch upon with higher productivity, customthe developments in 2020, the COVID paners investing especially in large logisdemic and the impact it had on everybody. tics systems around their equipment, How would you describe the impact it had on since logistics is a big cost driver in Kilian Renschler, CEO Koenig & Bauer, and how much of the impact folding carton. Customers, when do you still feel? upgrading presses, they were also looking into ways Kilian Renschler: A big difference we saw was to increase the overall efficiency on the shop floor. the use of virtual tools. The importance of virtual We have seen more sales of sophisticated service and support tools was key in this time. It machines, long presses, more embellishment, also brought up the importance of the digitization double or triple coaters to offer new products and of Koenig & Bauer, that we already have tools in innovations for the market place for preventive maintenance, to monitor press WTT: I assume commercial press sales were down performance and consult customers based on that. considerably during the pandemic. Has that market Communication was very important, how to recovered? train service technicians in a pandemic when travel KR: We have customers in the commercial market is not possible. Here the factory came up with innowho are very successful, they have succeeded even vative ways to train technicians and continue to in difficult times depending on the market they serve the market. serve. Overall, it is fair to say that commercial printWhat we clearly saw is that the packaging ers have not grown in comparison to the packaging market remained very active. The changed conmarket. However, we do see the commercial market sumer behaviors to buy more packaged food in rebounding once we get past COVID. grocery stores resulted in a high demand of food WTT: Last year you had the Koenig & Bauer Print packaging. Also, on the pharmaceutical side we saw Live event where you launched new machines. Maybe that customers were busy and we needed to guaryou can give a quick intro to these and whether they are antee uptime. We have a strong service team that available already? proved to be very flexible and adopted the new KR: Last year we had a virtual event, which was
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WhatTheyThink - Printing News | April 2021
3/18/21 11:23 AM
