CEO Update

5 days of trade fair, more than 400 customer meetings and 55 active employees as well as representatives at our booth: The past few weeks were all dedicated to Hannover Messe. And we had the pleasure of two particularly distinguished visitors. 


Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and State Secretary Stefan Wenzel at Wöhner at Hannover Messe
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz learned how our solutions increase efficiency and safety in energy distribution worldwide and thus drive the energy transition. I also exchanged views with the Parliamentary State Secretary Stefan Wenzel on what Wöhner, as a family-owned company, contributes to make our industry and energy systems more sustainable and even more reliable.

These visits are a special honour for us and underline the key contribution we make to energy security and efficiency, both in Germany and globally. We take this recognition as an incentive to continue to put all our creative power and innovative spirit at the service of optimal energy distribution, thereby promoting climate-friendly and powerful systems equally and strengthening Germany as a business location.
 

Forward-looking projects thanks to strong partnerships
All in all, the trade fair was a complete success for us and we very much enjoyed exchanging ideas with customers, partners and media representatives personally again – this was especially important to us after the restrictions of the Corona period.

The ZVEI project "PCF@Control Cabinet", which visitors were able to get to know at the trade fair, also makes clear how essential direct exchange and close cooperation are. The German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (ZVEI) demonstrated the implementation of the Digital Product Passport using a control cabinet containing products from various manufacturers. This enables the industry to easily document required product information and thus prove the entire product life cycle – a decisive milestone for the circular economy. We are proud to be one of 14 companies involved in this interdisciplinary pioneering project.
 

Easing of supply capacities
After the world had to get used to a daily routine with a pandemic, the year 2022 has also brought various challenges with geopolitical upheavals, rising energy prices and further delivery bottlenecks. We would like to thank our customers for their trust and loyalty, with which they have accompanied us through the past months. 

With regard to the supply chains, we are pleased to record a certain easing of the situation. We were able to reduce the backlog of deliveries by 30 per cent in the past three months. Since March, we have been gradually reducing delivery times for the majority of our portfolio. Even though the problem is calming down worldwide, we continue to work on more robust and local options. Our suppliers' capacities have been expanded so that we can react to changes faster and more flexibly.


More performance and additional services
Supply chains are a factor of market events that we can only influence to a limited extent – the same applies to rising raw material and energy prices. But we attach great importance to reducing negative effects for our customers as much as possible and to compensating for waiting times or rising costs with additional services.

Our Design-In process supports customers free of charge in project planning for low-voltage switchgear or distribution systems with Wöhner components. Based on central customer data, Wöhner creates a proposal for a maximally economical system and lists possible product alternatives – in this way, customers can easily find components that are technically suitable as well as quickly available, and can build their switchgear cabinets in a space-saving, future-proof and sustainable way. 

Furthermore, against the background of rising costs, we will henceforth equip our products with a clear added value: our Value Added Services. We will provide the software-based feature upgrades that increase the range of functions for the electronic measurement technology module CrossMT and the motor starter MOTUS C14 free of charge. This saves users money. For us, it is essential to convince with our balance of price and product now as well.
 

New structures for even more innovative strength
Against the background of continuous change, it is particularly important for us to offer our customers and partners constant quality and power of innovation. In order to continue to meet our high standards in the future, we have renewed our structures, such as our order management under the responsibility of Carsten Thomas and our sales activities. For example, optimised, digitalised processes enable us to react even faster to customer orders. 

In addition, new faces are strengthening our team and bringing fresh impetus to the Wöhner cosmos. As Vice Presidents Product, Peter Spiel and Lars Meisenbach are now jointly responsible for the division in order to continue to promote power of innovation at Wöhner. Igor Magugliani is at the top of Global Sales. Our common goal is and remains to ensure our full focus on our customers in all our activities.


Best regards
Philipp Steinberger