10 years Belisce
29.05.2008
Our Success Story – 10 Years Belisce Production Facility
1998 – 2008 – The Success Story of the Croatian Production Facility for Harburg-Freudenberger Maschinenbau GmbH
"In April, we had many reasons to celebrate in Belisce," says a satisfied Günter Simon, Manager of Harburg-Freudenberger Maschinenbau GmbH in Hamburg. "For one, we could celebrate the ten year anniversary of our successful production site for curing presses. And then there were 130 employees celebrating ten years of employment with our company." The employees had a large celebration for themselves and the industrial site, with captain of industry and politicians widely known in Croatia among the guests. In addition to the curing presses, the production facility in Belisce (Croatia), strategically situated between Hungary and Serbia, also manufactures components for the plants in Hamburg and Freudenberg.
Continuous Economic Growth
Ten years ago, Harburg-Freudenberger bought a majority share of the local machine factory as part of a joint venture deal with Bel AG, in the process acquiring a largely intact infrastructure with a dated, but functional machine park and large, then unused assembly halls. In addition, the facility was manned with well-educated and highly motivated employees.
Based in Hamburg, the management of Harburg-Freudenberger Maschinenbau GmbH set its sights on building tire curing presses in Belisce, that could be sold all over the world at competitive prices. In 1998, just months after the joint venture project
came to an end, the Croatian production facility started working directly for Harburg-Freudenberger, with 150 employees cranking out a meager 40 tire curing presses per year. Today, the Belisce plant has over 350 blue and white collar employees who can proudly look back upon the 1350 tire curing presses they delivered in the past ten years. "Our highly motivated employees are very young with an average age of 35 and form a high-performance team. This team can sustain a very high quality level at a high productivity rate," says Norbert Behrendt, the curing press division manager and executive director in Croatia, while explaining the formula for success at his industrial site.
He plans on sticking to this formula together with Branko Visnjovic his Croatian colleague on the board of managers. Modernization is an ongoing project, which currently spells out as taking down old metal working machines and installing new ones in their place.
The economic success in Belisce also has positive effects on the German headquarters of Harburg-Freudenberger Maschinenbau GmbH. As an example, the curing press department in Hamburg-Harburg went from eight to currently 44 employees.
State of the Art Technology
Tire curing presses built by Harburg-Freudenberger Maschinenbau GmbH are so successful on the market because of several distinctive technical features geared towards making the tire production process easier to handle and more economic. As an example, these presses can be set up at floor level without a machine pit. A patented, rapid-action mold height adjusting device or a simple locking system are among the advantages of this machine, as are its bladder mechanism without dynamic sealing system with Teflon media supply hoses. For mold changing or maintenance, these easy access presses are modifiable due to their modular design and can be quickly reconfigured using other core components, such as bladder mechanisms.
Based on the modular design, Harburg-Freudenberger Maschinenbau GmbH can now manufacture various types of column type curing presses. Besides the basic module for partially vulcanizing tires and the standard module for economic mass production, many custom-made machine solutions are possible. Among the possible solutions are also complex high-tech presses used for the high-end production of airplane and high-speed tires. When working on custom-made designs and/or developing new curing press technologies, the Croatian employees collaborate closely with their counterparts located at the headquarters in Hamburg.
Global Success
Harburg-Freudenberger Maschinenbau GmbH with a workforce of 1,100 worldwide is one of the leading mechanical engineering and service companies in the fields of edible oil technology, rubber compounding and rubber processing. With production plants in three countries (Germany, Croatia and the USA) and representative offices throughout the world, the company last year generated sales of approx. EUR 235 million.
Contact at Harburg-Freudenberger:
Sabine Sergel
Harburg-Freudenberger Maschinenbau GmbH
Seevestr. 1; D-21079 Hamburg
Phone: (040) 77 179 370; Fax: (040) 77 179 630
sabine.sergel@hf-group.com
