TPI March 2021

Business & market news Interview

What is your personal background and experience in selling machines? In 1997 I started at Messer Cutting Systems in Germany as regional manager (sales) following in the footsteps of my father who worked at Messer Cutting for 35 years. In the beginning I attended from my main base at the factory in Germany a wide variety of countries from Pakistan via the Middle East over to Africa, Greece, Turkey and then because of my language skills to Spain, Portugal and all of Latin America. Then I moved to Spain where my wife is from and built up Messer Spain as a sales and service organisation from zero. When Messer in 2007 opened Messer Brazil I was heavily involved and spent 3 to 4 months every year over there. When in 2012 I got the chance to move over to Müller Opladen as sales director and partner in the company I happily took this new challenge and it worked out great. How difficult has 2020 been for you and how do you see 2021 on the sales side? In 2020 we reached our targets, which we had defined in 2019 before anybody had heard about Corona virus, despite of the worldwide Corona pandemic disruption. This shows how robust and solid our company reputation is even in difficult times. But still it was a very challenging year and we were lucky with some projects, which showed up in 2020 out of the blue and we were able to fulfill customer demands for quick deliveries of specialised machines. We are also a very flexible and customer-driven company and that paid off in the crazy year we just experienced. For 2021 we hope like everybody that with the vaccines and better Corona treatments the world comes back to normal soon. We hope and think we can have a reasonable year, but it is not yet sure. What is your nicest or best personal achievement while working at Müller Opladen? There were a lot of very positive and nice things in the almost ten years I have been at Müller, but I remember two things as real personal achievements filled with a lot of positive energy. When I started at Müller, I was told that Müller had never sold anything in the US and that it would be my most important task to open that giant market for our machines. In 2013, within two days and on my second trip to the US we achieved two machine orders worth more than a million- dollars and I felt really happy and satisfied. Since then, the US was always our biggest market (except in 2019) and now we even have a company and partners there. The second real key experience that filled me with a big wave of positive energy was when in August 2019, after more than six months of complicated contract negotiations, and

tough fighting with competitors, we finally got the Novatek order from Russia. This $3mn order for six big machines (5 CNC pipe profilers and 1 robotic beam profiler) was the biggest order Müller Opladen has achieved in more than 100 years of its history. When I got the email with the official PO I immediately bought some French Champagne and celebrated with my family. Do you also offer machines for cutting structural steel? Yes, we also manufacture robotic beam profilers for the offshore and structural steel industry. This is a relatively new business area for us, but we have already sold machines to several different countries such as Brazil, Mexico and Russia. I clearly see this as one of our products with the highest growth potential for the next years. What do you personally like about selling 3D cutting machines at Müller Opladen? I have always loved travelling since I went with a backpack and a few dollars in 1989 for four months to Egypt and South East Asia. Selling Müller machines is a very challenging worldwide activity, which enables me to work closely together with people from all continents and cultures. A big part of the job is normally (although not in Corona times) travelling and to really visit customers and agents, which I enjoy. Due to my job I am able to maintain real friendships around the globe in many countries such as the US, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and Dubai.

Müller Opladen – Germany mail@mueller-opladen.de www.mueller-opladen.de

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TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL March 2021

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