The company’s impressive UK facility in Daventry, Northamptonshire is home to an exclusive and broad range of machines, and during this latest Inside event offered live demonstrations of various machines to an eager audience of manufacturers.
Biesse UK’s commercial manager, Robbie O’Neill, explains the thinking behind this Inside event: “It was timed to appeal to busy people who want to keep up to date with the latest opportunities, but perhaps couldn’t afford the time to get over to Ligna in Germany recently.
“As always, we have a wide range of machinery to view, much of which is being put through its paces, along with other partners, which altogether provides a useful, informative and time-effective visit.”
Biesse’s impressive 48,500ft² site in Daventry attracted some 42 companies with around 90 people for a catch-up on the latest technologies and solutions that Biesse is developing for the market.
Early reports following the show confirmed that in excess of £1m worth of orders were generated at the event.
As Robbie explained, there was a wide range of the latest technology for furniture and joinery manufacturers on display, with visitors getting practical demonstrations throughout the event.
Four CNC machines were on display including a Rover A SMART, a Rover S FT, a Rover A Plast and a Klever 2236 G FT. There were five edgebanding machines present, a Spark 5.3 (static), a Jade 240, an Akron 1300 and 1400 plus a Stream A. Two sanders were on show, a VIET S1 and a VIET Opera 5. In terms of panel sizing, there was an Active 400 (static) and a Selco WN 2. For those interested in drilling and boring, an OMAL 1300, a Skipper V31 and a Brema EKO 2.2 were on display too.
“One of the key machines at our show was the Selco WN2 saw,” explains Robbie, “which is aimed squarely at the smaller user who probably thought he could never afford a beam saw. The Selco is ideally suited to the kind of business we regularly see which has three panel saws using up a load of space – and the WN2 will easily do the work of those three panel saws with a considerably reduced footprint.”
The show was also an opportunity for Biesse to promote its impressive and affordable AirForce zero glue line solution for businesses seeking to achieve a premium edgebanding finish.
Biesse’s option has certainly captured the imagination of customers seeking this type of output. As Robbie remarks: “The market uptake for zero glue line technology is really amazing at the moment, I would say 50% of the edgebanding machines we sell have AirForce on them!”
Robbie also cited the importance of the company’s partnerships with ancillary product and service suppliers, who regularly participate at Biesse’s Inside events.
“Biesse is a woodworking machinery manufacturer and we’ve got plenty to offer visitors of course – but with experts in tooling, edging tape, finishing systems, software, finance and so forth, the Inside events provide added interest and value for the visitor.”
Despite the apparent upbeat nature of the market for machines at the moment, Robbie does say that there is degree of Brexit nerves affecting customers decision making at the moment, which inevitably causes some firms to delay planned investments. However, he does expect the year to round out well with a number of substantial orders helping to keep things on track.
In terms of after-sales and service, Robbie suggests that this is one of the key reasons why customers buy from them. “Biesse is totally committed to after-sales and service. Currently, we’ve got four new engineers joining the company, taking the total to 28 employed directly by Biesse UK.”
In addition, the company is starting to use sub-contractors to help maintain the company’s five-year Total Care warranty – part of that is is a service contract which naturally requires an engineer, and this work is being effectively achieved by third-party engineers.
“We see machine maintenance as a key issue and we make it clear when we sell machines that looking after the investment means more up-time and more profit!
“When I go around the country, I see too many machines running today that have no servicing whatsoever, until something goes wrong, then it’s a disaster. Any downtime costs a company money, and a good service plan such as our Total Care option makes clear business sense.”
In terms of future developments, Robbie alluded to wider market opportunities, specifically in the advanced materials side of manufacturing and the framing market.
With the recent Uniteam acquisition, Biesse has a strong offer for SIP and CLT panels – a market Robbie says should develop strongly in the near future – as well as a number of solutions for those manufacturing with composites market, plastic and metal.
“We’ve already made one installation to a UK housebuilding business worth over €11m – and that customer has the potential for another seven lines, so that market looks certain to be an area where we can develop strongly.”
In the near future, Robbie says Biesse will also be putting on an event dedicated to finishing. He says British companies are looking to manufacture more, doors for instance, and sanding and finishing is an area that it will be focusing on to enable customers to take advantage of that sort of opportunity.
Biesse UK’s fully equipped training facilities, combined with a comprehensive range of machines in its Technical Centre, remains available for visitors to have demonstrations or indeed take machines on a ‘test drive’.
