BEUMER is celebrating an anniversary – A successful family history

80 years of customised and

efficient customer solutions:

In 2014, BEUMER Group, based in Beckum, looked back on yet another

successful year with a turnover of 680 million Euros. This was possible

because BEUMER continued to concentrate on its core business capabilities,

to be innovative, and consistently to pursue its strategic policy of

globalisation. A considerable portion of the credit for all this must go

to the shared values of this family-owned company. They are the basis for

the system provider’s successful integration of some 4,100 employees, each

of whom comes from different cultures and backgrounds, and of those, in

particular, who have joined the group as a result of its corporate

acquisitions. This year, BEUMER Group celebrates its 80th anniversary.

With innovative system solutions for intralogistics in conveying and

loading technology, palletising and packaging technology as well as

sortation and distribution systems, BEUMER has established an excellent

position in the world market. These solutions are applied in various

industries such as cement, lime and gypsum, agriculture and mining,

chemicals, pharmaceuticals, energy, food and beverage and also in airports

and logistics centres. "We can only achieve a high level of customer

satisfaction and a sustainable, successful market presence when the whole

team is involved in the corporate strategy in the long term," explains Dr.

Christoph Beumer, Chairman and CEO of BEUMER Group. He has been managing

the family business since 2000, now in the third generation. Just how

innovative and successful this mid-sized company is, has now been

extensively documented in the latest edition of the compendium of German

world market leaders "Lexikon der deutschen Weltmarktführer", issued by

the business press publisher Deutsche Standards EDITIONEN.

It all started with an idler

On December 9, 1935, the 33-year-old Bernhard Beumer started his first

work day as an entrepreneur with four employees. Until then, he had been

working for a conveying technology company in Essen. One of his most

important seed assets, aside from his courage and determination, was the

experience he gained as a repair mechanic for conveying technology,

working in the mining industry in the Ruhr area before completing his

degree in engineering. Bernhard Beumer had long entertained the idea of

being independent and founding his own business. When he learned that a

vacant factory building in his hometown of Beckum was up for sale, he

seized this opportunity. The classic conveying technology formed the

foundation of his business.

The entrepreneur starts from scratch. As a young senior engineer, he knew

the business, as well as the customer's needs. Already when founding his

new company, he brought with him his first orders from the building

materials, cement and mining industries. A considerable step towards the

success of BEUMER conveying technology was his development of the idler

with labyrinth seal. The founder of the company had this innovation

patented and integrated it further into other products. From this idler,

he derived the company logo which is still used today: The circle

represents the cross section of the idler's tube, the arrow is the idler

axle and its direction of running. The company continued to grow,

employing about 100 people at the outbreak of the Second World War.

The son as successor

Not only the company founder, but also his eldest son bears the name

Bernhard Beumer. It was an obvious choice for the son to follow in his

father's footsteps. After completing studies in mechanical engineering, he

worked at his father's side for 18 years and took over the company after

his father's death in 1981. In the field of conveying technology, he

particularly pursued the development of bucket elevators. He quickly

realised that a chain as a traction element was too heavy. Its net weight

cancels out a major portion of its tractive force. By this time, BEUMER

was already an expert in belt conveying technology. This gave Bernhard

Beumer the idea of using a belt as the traction element for bucket

elevators. He used a belt with steel wires to ensure that the buckets are

reliably fixed to the belt. He arranged the steel wires so that there are

wire-free zones. Holes can be punched into these zones to fasten the

buckets tightly to the belt.

With these bucket elevators, BEUMER created a conveying technology which

allows for considerably higher speeds and greater centre distances.

BEUMER's current belt bucket elevators allow centre distances of 178

metres or more. By the mid-1980s, the supplier had installed about 100

systems altogether, in 2007 and 2008 there were about 450 installed per

year, world-wide. Besides the product development in the field of

conveying technology, Bernhard Beumer Jr. also continued the initial

development of loading systems and set BEUMER on a decisive path for the

globalisation of the group, founding companies in Brazil, the USA and

Asia.

On any terrain - curved belt conveyors

In the 1960s, BEUMER laid the foundation for curved belt conveying

systems. The first theoretical designs on the market were from the

company's Department for Research and Development. Today this group is one

of the technological leaders for these systems, either as troughed belt

conveyors with open design or as Pipe Conveyors. One particularly

impressive reference project is the 12.5 km long troughed belt conveyor in

the Chinese province of Sichuan, which was put into operation in 2008 and

currently conveys about 2,200 tons of limestone from the quarry to the

cement plant. Its routing features several vertical and horizontal curves.

The system traverses 1.5 kilometres of water surface and extensive bamboo

forests, and can overcome height distances of up to 100 metres. For the

same project, BEUMER Group has now been awarded the contract to supply and

install another conveyor of similar size, and the customer is already

planning a third expansion phase.

No more heavy lifting

In the field of loading technology, Bernhard Beumer Jr. developed new

products, such as the three-dimensional loading machine for loading cement

bags onto trucks. This relieved the physical burden of the workers. In the

1970s, the engineers further developed this machine until it became

completely automated. The stationary palletiser is a result of this

development. Today, the BEUMER paletpac stacks paper, PE and PP bags on

pallets of different sizes in a flexible, precise and stable way.

Depending on the product requirements, it can be equipped with a

clamp-type turning device or a twin-belt turning device. The latter allows

gentle, fast and precise stacking of bagged bulk material on pallets. The

BEUMER stretch hood is a well proven high capacity packaging system that

then packages the palletised stacks efficiently and economically. This

technology has been optimised further in regards to functioning, economic

efficiency and ergonomics and was presented for the first time at the

Interpack in May 2014. Since its introduction, BEUMER's customers have

responded very positively to this system.

The third generation

Since 2000, Dr.-Ing. Christoph Beumer, the founder's grandson, has been

managing the company. "The success is primarily due to the familial

spirit. We have consistently held to our motto 'We are looking for the

long-term success, and not for the short-term profit'," he says. BEUMER

ensures the long-term success of the company through manageable growth, a

large range of products and a global market presence. BEUMER machines and

systems are in use all around the world. The group consistently pursues

its globalisation, by setting up local group companies, and even local

production facilities in China and Thailand. The result: the company has

exhibited extremely stable organic growth over the last several years.

Undeterred by the impending financial and global economic crisis, Beumer

took over the Danish sortation technology specialist Crisplant in 2009,

followed later by companies in India, the US and Belgium. Hundreds of

thousands of suitcases every day pass through BEUMER baggage systems at

airports in Frankfurt, London, Beijing, Singapore and other locations

world-wide. Thousands of packages traverse conveyor belts supplied by the

intralogistics specialist at parcel centres operated by Hermes, GeoPost,

UPS and FedEx. With its acquisition of Enexco Technologies in India, a

manufacturer of grinding systems and packaging machines for the cement

industry, BEUMER has reinforced its presence in vital markets and

simultaneously systematically expanded its portfolio, without abandoning

its traditional segments. And what about the integration of the very

diverse cultures? The CEO views this as a chance to learn from each other.

"We want to create a working environment where everyone respects each

other's individuality," emphasises Dr. Beumer. And due to the fact that

the local employees in the group companies speak the same language as

their customers, the customers feel understood. This creates a high level

of customer retention.

Becoming a single-source provider

In order to be able to fill bags with bulk materials such as cement,

mortar or gypsum and therefore provide entire packaging lines for the

building materials industry, the BEUMER fillpac, an innovative filling

system was introduced to the market in 2013. Users can flexibly integrate

and adapt it to existing packaging lines. At the Achema 2015 trade fair,

BEUMER presented itself for the first time to the chemical industry as a

single-source provider for filling, palletising and packaging technologies

with its latest development of an innovative form fill seal (FFS) system.

The BEUMER sealpac responds very flexibly to different bulk density, flow

characteristics and grain distribution.

More than just service

BEUMER does not only provide and install machines and systems. With highly

capable specialists deployed around the globe, the company also ensures

trouble-free operation worldwide. BEUMER Group has established a fourth,

independent business unit, in the form of its Customer Support unit. The

group thus ensures high levels of availability for its customers' machines

and systems. Its specialists take care of the customer, starting with the

first project discussion, up until the system is in operation. Customer

Support offers various service agreements which are matched individually

to the respective needs of the customer, including service intervals and

response times as agreed by contract. The agreements can range from

maintenance and inspection to a long-term placement of service personnel

on site. Within the framework of its wide reaching Customer Support

business, BEUMER Group also provides Residential Service. It enables

logistics service providers to delegate the responsibility of

availability, performance and profitability of filling, palletising and

packaging installations to BEUMER specialists. The single-source provider

has extensive experience and knowledge of technical and logistics matters

in the chemical industry, helping ensure the high efficiency of their

machines. In order to provide trouble-free operation, BEUMER employees

come to customer sites world-wide, even long-term, if required.

"I view the company as a little jewel case," explains Dr. Beumer when

speaking of the company history. "When my grandfather founded it, it was

no more than a little wooden box. He added some velvet lining to it and

then handed it over to the second generation, my father, who added some

more and embellished it further." And following this tradition, the jewel

box was then handed over to Dr. Christoph Beumer. His belief is that if

you receive the little box, your task is to keep it safe, to maintain it,

and, if possible, always add a little to it. Under no circumstances may

you remove anything or simply live off of it. "The responsibility is

always handed over as well," emphasises Dr. Beumer.