FACE TO FACE
ARKU history
ARKU ’ s history is a family story spanning three generations . In 1928 , master craftsman Albert Reiss founded a sheet metalworking company in Haueneberstein in Baden ( Germany ). His son Artur developed this inheritance into an industrially-oriented machine-tool factory . In the initial years after Artur Reiss took over the metalworking company , it was based in Kuppenheim . The company name ARKU originated from this period : Artur Reiss KUppenheim .
In 1967 , ARKU built its first precision leveller . In the 1970s , metalworking companies begin to use coils and ARKU expanded its product range to include decoilers and feeders . Smallseries production of precision levellers transformed into customer-specific systems manufacturing .
In 1986 , Albert Reiss , the son of Artur Reiss , became the managing director of ARKU after completing his degree .
Today , the company focuses exclusively on coil lines , parts levellers and deburring machines .
Increasing its reach
“ Over the last few years , our turnover has continued to increase . Despite the pandemic , our order income this year has been very good . Sales started steadily growing again after the second quarter of 2020 , when the pandemic hit . We have also made significant investments in our U . S . presence in the last two years . We moved to our own building in Cincinnatti last year and increased our facilities and showroom / contract levelling facility there ,” Hellriegel told ISMR .
“ We have strengthened our teams and service offerings in China and the U . S ., where we can also do contract levelling as we have specialist levelling centres in these countries . Customers simply bring or send us their parts . All in all , we are the only levelling manufacturer to be present on three continents ,” he continued .
ARKU has also developed distributor partnerships in many countries for local service support . Its largest markets , by size , are Europe , the USA and China . Customers include sheet metal job shops and manufacturers in a variety of sectors such as automotive , machinebuilding , architecture , electronics ; construction and shipbuilding .
“ We have also increased our deburring product portfolio and have now developed a
Deburring operations on the EdgeBreaker ® 6000 .
Deburred material ( top ).
full range of sizes / capabilities for varied sheet metal applications . A key focus for us has been product development over the last two years . We spend around 5 % of our turnover on R & D ever year ,” added Hellriegel .
COVID-19 response
As the COVID-19 pandemic hit supply chains , ARKU ( along with other manufacturers globally ) struggled to find available materials and parts .
“ Lockdowns and uncertainty in the market in 2020 hit our sales , as customers stopped investing , but from mid- 2020 , our sales began to recover . The pandemic also changed our working habits as we started using online meeting resources such as MS Teams . It was good to have our local subsidiaries
ARKU ’ s FlatMaster ® 88 precision leveller .
in the U . S . and China so that we could carry out worldwide service during the travel restrictions . In addition , we strengthened our local service partners in other countries who had to work more independently and manage installations with the online support of our service technicians . This , of course , meant providing more training ,” explained Andreas Hellriegel .
“ The pandemic has also streamlined our operations to a degree , without the need to have as many meetings , or travel as much , and relying on our local partners . However , it also caused difficulties as processes were not as efficient as they were normally , trade shows were cancelled etc . In the absence of trade shows , we decided to offer online machine demonstrations , seminars and webinars , along with in-house events when safe to do so . We have learned to plan more around future uncertainty , as a result , and cope with lastminute changes ,” he added .
ISMR December 2021 / January 2022 | sheetmetalplus . com | 35