The coronavirus lockdowns gave them time to reflect on the business, and incorporate customer feedback into its operations. ‘We now operate with two individual technical support business groups, one focused on high pressure mixing equipment and sandwich panel press technology, and one focused on our own AutoRIM low pressure mixing equipment and the support of other brands of low pressure metering machinery,’ he said. ‘We would have struggled to achieve this step-change in normal circumstances.’
Hindson has also found a Brexit dividend appears to be at play ‘Our customers are telling us they have a strong preference to buy from a single source in the UK that can provide technology transfer or integrate a package of equipment for insulation projects.’
Important refitting Covestro’s Savarino echoed Hindson’s point about refitting and repairing existing machines. ‘We have a very large number of machines in the field,’ he said. ‘These need to be serviced, maintained, and upgraded. This is a safe business. Customers could reduce their investment, but will still need to maintain their machines. This part of our business is growing as a percentage because the number of machines is growing, the machine lifetime is 20–30 years, and they need modernising and maintaining during that time. If you are a customer you try to protect your existing business, even if you cannot grow it.’
Baumer’s Hauck has a slightly different point of view. ‘There was very little retrofitting in 2021,’ he said. ‘Coronavirus meant that we could not travel. Instead, many customers bought new machines because of consumer demand for mattresses and furniture during their lockdowns.’
Now, as service staff can travel again, they can concentrate on the retrofit business at customer sites. ‘We specifically targeted those customers and machines with outdated and discontinued components, mainly electrical controls,’ he said. ‘The actual result was plenty of contracts, for upgrading more than 80 drive systems on older equipment. Fortunately, the late delivery of sub-suppliers is not hitting us as badly as it is on new machinery. Usually, the machines are still running, and we can upgrade the machines when the parts are available.’
The big issues facing machinery-makers as they look towards the rest of 2022 are the high prices, shortages, and unreliable delivery times of the components they need. ‘The after-effects of coronavirus are not over, especially in the supply chain,’ said Saip’s Walter Pozzi. ‘Many companies are struggling to source products. From computer chips to carbon steel, everything is short, and prices are rocketing.’
Hennecke’s Trippler said that in 2021, the company’s order intake was above budget. ‘The first half was critical in terms of order intake because of the impact of coronavirus,’ he said. ‘But the second half compensated for this, and allowed us to finish the financial year ahead of our budget. Looking to 2022, we want to do better than 2021, and take the momentum into the first quarter, which is very positive in terms of order intake. But to keep that momentum, with all the worldwide issues of the supply chain, the coronavirus outbreak in China and the Russia-Ukraine situation, it will be difficult. My concern is that we will see a hit later in the year because of these influences.’
In terms of business at Fecken-Kirfel, Pinckers said that 2022 is shaping up to be the same as, if not better than, 2021. ‘As a machine manufacturer, we had delivery times of 4–6 months on average,’ he said. ‘Nowadays, we have 10–14 month delivery time. It is really difficult for our customers to see so far into the future. What is needed today could have changed in 12 months. But our customers agree with the timeframe. If people want cutting machines of quality, they have to go with us or a competitor, who have similar delivery times.’