What are your core products and services? What are you best known for providing?

Regina Schnathmann: BEUMER Group is one of the leading manufacturers in the intralogistics sector. As a full-range supplier, we provide our customers with integrated solutions for conveying and loading technology, palletising and packaging technology and sortation and distribution systems.

This gives the customer the advantage of receiving everything, including software, from one single source. This makes us not only a system integrator, but also a software supplier. We also provide comprehensive customer support. Whether it is residential service, spare parts supply or training programmes, we offer our customers different agreements and develop individual concepts, tailored to their requirements.

What developments or upgrades have you made to your core products and services in the last 12 months?

Regina Schnathmann: There are quite a few! Our proven BEUMER stretch hood^® packaging system was given a complete redesign. For the development of the new BEUMER stretch hood® A series, our specialists analysed various components and combined them optimally in terms of function, arrangement and ergonomics.

This includes a soft-touch panel that guides the user intuitively through the machine control menu as well as material-friendly transport of the film in the system.

The innovative high-capacity packaging system offers higher throughput and requires 40 % less floor space compared to previous versions. Customers from the consumer goods market and logistics sector and especially the cement, construction, and chemical industries can benefit from numerous advantages.

The stretch film for example adapts to any product that is stacked on the pallet, which ensures greater protection during transport and provides load stability. The film is very stretchable during the packaging process and its contracting forces keep the goods tight together.

Contrary to shrink wrapping, since no heat is used in the packaging process, the film will not glue to the product. A sheet placed on the pallet provides the stacked goods with additional protection against external influences.

Thanks to the high transparency of the film, the packed products are clearly visible. And barcode labelling is quickly and consistently recognisable.

Logos and text can also be printed on the film to be used as an advertising medium. The BEUMER fillpac^® filling machine and the high-performance layer palletiser BEUMER paletpac^® complement our product portfolio in the palletising and packaging segments, and provide our customers with complete solutions that can be adapted to any requirement.

3) Have you launched any new products and services in your conveying & loading segment for warehousing & distribution industry in the past year? How are they performing?

Regina Schnathmann: One of our latest developments is the BEUMER Parcel Picker^®. This semiautomatic unloading device is used in logistics centres and is suitable for different packages. It is used for fast and ergonomic unloading of swap bodies and trailers.

Compared to manual unloading which is most commonly used today, users such as postal operators and CEP companies can considerably increase their throughput. With average-sized parcels and a trained operator who is familiar with the system, throughput rates of more than 2,500 packages per hour are possible.

Which industry sectors are your customers in?

Regina Schnathmann: BEUMER Group provides innovative solutions for various industries. We have customers from the cement and mining industries, the chemical and energy sectors, airports and CEP companies. We provide unique technologies of outstanding quality to all these industries.

How are you doing in terms of growth?

Regina Schnathmann: BEUMER Group is positioned as a world market leader and has achieved substantial growth during the last few years. We have won many important awards for being one of the most innovative companies of the German mid-sized sector.

On one hand we owe this to our sustainable management, but it’s also due to our technical developments that continue to improve and complement. We will continue this course in the future and further drive our growth.

Have you made any big moves recently in terms of investment in the business, recruitment and so on?

Regina Schnathmann: We just recently moved to a new building at our Beckum location. The four-storey building on a base surface of 2,000 square metres offers space for up to 280 new workspaces.

The new building provides an optimal working environment for our employees and the architecture blends in very well with the adjacent old structure, due to its large windows.

This is especially important to us because only if our employees are satisfied, the customer will be too. We put particular emphasis on supporting and developing our junior staff.

Being located in a more rural area like Beckum, it can be challenging to find qualified personnel. For this reason, one thing we offer students, for example, is the possibility to write their bachelor or master thesis in cooperation with the company.

The new graduates with engineering, economic or computer science degrees are then in a great position to start directly with BEUMER Group. Our international trainee program is also very attractive to young talents.

What are your plans for this year? Are you planning to bring out any more products or services, move into new markets or enter new countries?

Regina Schnathmann: As a leading manufacturer in intralogistics, we continue to look for innovations and further develop our technologies. We have the ambition to always improve our products. This allows us to always create new solutions with great benefits for the customer. We have a lot coming up in the next year too, so stay tuned!

Are you exhibiting at any major trade shows in 2016?

Regina Schnathmann: Yes, here as well we are very close to the customer and the market. We have already been at Bauma, CeMAT and Cemtech Asia and will be represented at many other trade shows and exhibitions worldwide. Such as CeMAT Australia, Mineral Processing Expo in Canada and the Parcel Forum in the US.

What are your predictions for the Warehousing & Distribution Logistics industry over this year?

Regina Schnathmann: I’m sure that digitisation, automation and flexibility will continue to grow over the next year throughout the entire intralogistics sector, not only warehousing and distribution.

The digital change will fundamentally affect the logistics value chain and create entirely new business models. This means that intralogistics companies as well as service providers will have to face new challenges.

Future success will depend even more on the capacity of their logistics centres. The customer expects fast and trouble-free delivery, 24/7. The Industry 4.0 is already here, intralogistics and digitisation are already inseparably interlinked. Even though there are already lots of intelligent solutions, we have not yet reached the technological limits.

Finally, what other headline news from BEUMER Group can our readers look forward to reading about in Warehouse Management 2016 Editions.

Regina Schnathmann: We continue to develop our company and our product range further. The second half of the year still has a lot to offer for our customers. Be ready to be surprised.