Highlights of 75 years - Hettich

The name Hettich Interpack stands for a unique
outsourcing service. Launched in early 2000, Interpack
offers the benefits of single-source picking, packaging
and logistics for furniture fittings. Today the service is
used by furniture manufacturers in 14 countries. Major
customers are in Germany, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia
and the UK. Markets in the Americas will be supplied
from Brazil.
Another customer for the bagged fittings
is Angstrem, a company founded in 1991
and today employing 500 people to produce
mid-price residential furniture.
Since the beginning of 2005, WKDP
has joined the growing circle of Hettich
Interpack customers. WKDP, founded in
1952, now employs almost 1,500 people.
The bagged fittings will be combined with
its flatpack living room, bedroom and
teen-room furniture.
Traditional market UK
It‘s hard to picture the British furniture
market without RTA furniture. Roughly
70% of all furniture is produced and
shipped as flat pack products. Hettich
Interpack has been in operation in the
UK for five years and counts many British
companies among its customers.
One of the newest is NOW Kitchens, a
customer since April 2004. At the outset
of the cooperation, Hettich Intepack
carried out an analysis of all the customer‘s
fittings sets, which were then reconfigured
for maximum efficiency and
economy. Up to then, NOW Kitchens had
bought in all components and coordinated
packaging with a number of smaller
suppliers. The efficiency gains and time
savings achieved through working with
Hettich Interpack were quickly obvious,
especially because NOW Kitchens had
opted for just-in-time deliveries.
Alastair McNulty, managing director of
the NOW Group Plc., was impressed with
the service and is pretty upbeat about
the future. “Hettich‘s enterprise strategy
has fully supported our own growth
plans. The Now Group intends to expand
cooperation with Hettich Interpack,
because we benefit enormously, in Europe
and worldwide, from these prepicked and
prepackaged products.“
Furniture manufacturers are not the only
customers for Interpack services. One big
customer is B&Q, a UK chain, part of the
Kingfisher Group. With over 330 branches
and around 36,000 employees, B&Q is
number 1 among the DIY and garden
centres in the UK and sees itself as number
3 worldwide. Hettich Interpack supplies
B&Q stores with flatpacked drawer
systems. The biggest challenge here is the
flexibility required to supply on a justin-time
basis, because consumer buying
patterns are very different from carefully
planned manufacturing schedules.
Newcomer Brazil
Good results in many different markets
were the basis for a decision to
launch Hettich Interpack with Hettich do
Brasil. In Brazil, with its huge distances,
the concept will rely heavily on Internet
technology. Procurement, organization,
packaging and logistics will all be
handled via the Internet using database
solutions developed by Hettich in
Germany. These tried and tested system
solutions ensure transparent and reliable
service
processes. IT systems in Brazil and
Germany will be directly linked, so that
product and development responsibility
for Brazilian Hettich Interpack activities
will remain in Germany. Part of the
equation will involve making best use of
the production capacity and countryspecific
output of Hettich‘s different
international production plants.
Claudemir Facio Perreira, general sales
manager at Hettich do Brasil, predicts
enormous market potential in Brazil,
because the competition, with its local
packaging operations, is limited and
generally does not have the option of
sourcing fittings globally.
Milestones
Hettich Interpack is on a fast track
to growth. The idea of outsourcing
packaging activities has caught on worldwide,
and far faster than anyone could
have predicted when the company was
launched in 2000. Interpack services are
marketed via Hettich‘s sales companies
worldwide, who can quote five years of
growth – in customer base and knowhow
– as a unique and convincing sales
argument. Success in 14 countries is one
milestone along the road.
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