CPT International 4/2019

Plant production in
Plüderhausen. More
than 150 machines
are assembled here
every year.
As its CEO, Dr. Ioannis
Ioannidis has
already been determining
the destiny
of the company for
16 years and is also
active in associations
and with the
press.
‘Made in Germany’ and is 100 percent
family-owned,” stresses Dr. Ioannis
Ioannidis, President and CEO of the
Frech Group, in a resonant voice that
seems to give this sentence even greater
significance. “Our competitors are
mainly members of large corporate
groups,” he adds after a brief pause,
referring to companies such as Bühler
Druckguss, IDRA and Italpresse, among
others.
Dr. Ioannidis has now been running
the company for 16 years. During this
time he has successfully integrated the
cold-chamber die-casting machines
division of the company Müller Weingarten
into the group, kept the company
operating healthily through the
economic crisis, and ensured consistent
continuity of the internationalization
process initiated by Wolfgang Frech,
son of the founder. The CEO leads the
company with an alert eye on the political
and technological developments
of the time. Under his leadership, two
important current megatrends in the
sector are being worked on and molded
into interesting business concepts:
digitalization and additive manufacturing.
At the same time, he has reacted
to the constantly rising demand for the
company’s wares with expanded production
facilities and new works,
accompanying Frech’s business
development as President of CEMAFON
(the European Foundry Equipment
Suppliers’ Association) as well as being
Chairman of the Executive Board of
the VDMA Metallurgy engineering
association. The latest VDMA success
has been the introduction of the new
OPC UA interface standard, which
could represent an important step forward
in digitalization among foundry
equipment suppliers. Dr. Ioannidis,
however, is also concerned about matters
that reach far beyond his company’s
interests – most recently in an ARD
television interview about SMEs, a
topic close to the heart of the company
director. He wants to see more support
for SMEs in the form of funding for
innovations and changes in tax and
inheritance law. “It is five past twelve,”
he says, using the interview to clearly
express the need for action.
As CEO, he leads a healthy company
with about 800 employees worldwide,
annual sales of 160 million euros, and
an output of about 150 hot- and
cold-chamber die-casting machines per
year. The company has blossomed under
his management: Dr. Ioannidis can look
back on average annual growth of 12
percent during recent years. The takeover
of the former cold-chamber competitor
Müller-Weingarten has played an
important role in this remarkable
growth. This acquisition has made Frech
equipment an integral component of
the machinery of OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.
Plants with cold-chamber technology
now contribute annual sales that
far exceed 50 million euros.
The order books are full
A change of scene to the Plüderhausen
works, where every day 80 to 100 technicians
work on the assembly of machines
with clamping forces of 20 to 4,600 tonnes.
The large machines are mainly destined
for OEMs such as Peugeot, Mercedes,
Audi, Volkswagen and Renault, but
also Tier 1 companies like Trimet in
Essen, the AE Group, Faist and others.
With the help of a hall crane, some
men in overalls are transporting a complete
clamping unit to the base frame
of an unfinished machine, while others
CASTING PLANT & TECHNOLOGY 4/2019 41