Bossard Sets Goal to Double Sales by 2015
FEATURE
David Dean
Read “Bossard Sales Boosted By ‘Stable’ Demand” to see how well the company performed in the opening quarter of 2011.
The 180-year-old Bossard Group has a goal of doubling global sales by 2015 – an achievement that will require an average of 15% growth per year. Bossard’s 2010 sales rose 25% to 477 million Swiss francs (US$517m).
CEO David Dean emphasized that it isn’t just growth, but “profitable growth. We are only interested in profitable growth.”
The growth goal is part of Bossard doubling its Züg, Switzerland headquarters warehouse capacity, relocating its Beijing operation and plans for a new integrated facility in Malaysia.
“To grow we need capacity,” Dean said.
Dean told Fastener+Fixing editor Phil Matten that Bossard seeks organic growth rather than adding sales totals through acquisitions.
“There is no point in acquiring just to get the customers, when we have to change the acquired business totally to fit Bossard,” Dean explained. “Better to go out and win the customers we want, based on the values in which we know we can be totally confident.”
Dean is confident of the growth potential within Bossard business units rather than by acquisition. “Acquisitions would only be highly targeted.”
When Dean joined Bossard in 1992, 80% of the company’s business was in Switzerland. The Bossard family decided to develop a global business and to sell off its tools and hardware business to concentrate on fasteners.
“Bossard recognized that it had to follow its customers,” Dean recalled.
Today 80% of Bossard’s business is outside Switzerland. There are 53 service locations across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
In the U.S. Bossard is headquartered in Cedar Falls, Iowa, with satellites in California, Texas, Tennessee, Ohio and Wisconsin.
There are Bossard facilities in Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, China, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and India.
“The essence of our approach to servicing our customers, wherever they are is to be ‘glocal’ – to be global but to act local,” vice president for group sales & marketing Tee Bin Ong told Fastener+Fixing.
That requires the Bossard’s global team of 1,600 employees to recognize and respond to local culture.
Approximately 48% of Bossard sales re to machine industries; 35% to electronics; 16% metalworking; with remainder primarily construction.
“It’s all about execution at the end of the day,” Tee Bin Ong acknowledged.
Bossard encourages creativity throughout its operations. “Do what we feel is right, even the unconventional.”
Bossard’s “total cost of ownership” approach revolves around the 15:85 rule, with 15% being the value of the fastener and 85% I procurement control, warehousing, logistics, pre-assembly and assembly.
“We have to be comparative in the 15% area, but to provide best results for the customer we have to be effective in the 85% area,” Dean said.
“Making a saving of 10% on the fastener costs delivers just a 1.5% improvement on the total cost of ownership,” Dean pointed out. “Make a 10% saving on all the other additional values – the 85% – and the reward is an 8.5% reduction in total cost of ownership.”
Bossard installed 200,000 “smart bins” worldwide since 1998, which monitor weight of remaining, inventory. The data transmitted to Bossard automatically sets replenishment orders at pre-determined levels.
Newer software allows Bossard to reconcile customer forecasts against history as an early signal of ramp ups. “The number of times we have been able to prevent shortages is remarkable,” Dead finds.
“We are not just in technology for the technology,” Dean stipulated. “There has to be a value, one that we can sell and that delivers genuine benefits to the customer.”
Working with customers to solve problems – co-innovation
Sales people tech oriented for aesthetic, safety, functionality and production costs lean design.
Dean observed that frequently production people “are the ones that recognize the potential savings that can be achieved.
Bossard has 60 engineers for everything from research to providing fastening technology seminars for customers and personnel.
Andreas Bertaggia, vice president for purchasing & logistics, cited the Bossard Technical Centre in Taiwan. “It is not typical for a fastener distributor to have its own R&D,” Bertaggia explained. ” We have flexible, competent manufacturing partners – we don’t want to make the parts ourselves. We do want to combine application solution and supply.”
During the past two years, Bossard has leveraged engineered solutions to wider audiences.
For example, Bos-grip evolved from a specific solution for one bicycle manufacturer unsuccessfully using a socket screw and spring washer combination as a stem bolt. Bos-grip has an anti-loosening design with a serrated washer face eliminating the need for a separate washer. That allows automatic assembly and a lower property class fastener, reducing the induced hydrogen embrittlement risk.
Subsequently Taiwan’s Bicycle Manufacturing Association approved Bos-grip.
In addition to its own R&D, Bossard has partnerships with fastener manufacturers. “Nord-Lock, for example, came to Bossard seeking a partner in the development of a global marketing strategy,” Bertaggia noted. Bossard has the global infrastructure to work with users at the design phase to introduce the benefits of advance fastening solutions.”
The down economic year of 2009 was a test for the Bossard system. “While I certainly did not like the experience, 2009 was a fantastic test to see if what we had built between 2004 and 2008 would hold – and it did,” Dean reported.
“Bossard today is significantly different from how it was six or seven years ago.” Web: Bossard.com ©2011 GlobalFastenerNews.com and Fastener+Fixing
Read “Bossard Sales Boosted By ‘Stable’ Demand” to see how well the company performed in the opening quarter of 2011.
Related Stories:
• Bossard Sales Boosted By ‘Stable’ Demand
There are no comments at the moment, do you want to add one?
Write a comment