Rattunde Opens New Facility In Mexico
The new tech center houses Mexican sales and service operations, application engineering and spare parts inventory.
Posted: May 14, 2016
Rattunde Corporation (Caledonia, MI), the North American arm of a German-based manufacturer of finished length tube and solid bar production systems, has been operating from a single location in the Grand Rapids, MI, area for over nine years. Their considerable success in the market resulted in the recent grand opening of a new facility in the Monterrey, Mexico, area to serve their growing customer base in that country.
Company president Richard Stadler and vice president Alec Banish were joined by Mexico director Javier Lopez and his team to proudly open the doors to the new 8,073 sq ft (750 sq m) tech center in Monterrey/Apodaca that now houses Mexican sales and service operations, application engineering and spare parts inventory. Future plans include a machine onsite in 2017 for demonstration and training.
The decision to open this tech center was reached after an analysis of the current and anticipated business needs of the company in-country. “Our growth in America and in Mexico has been rapid, though not unexpected, due to the unique nature of our equipment and the reliability and performance characteristics of our machines,” explained Stadler. “With a solid install base and growing demand for local service in Mexico, this move simply made a lot of sense to us.”
He further noted that solid growth of the company into diverse markets throughout North America made the new facility a logical choice. He added that new machine sales generated directly from Mexico-based management and procurement personnel also contributed to the decision.
Concurrent with this new tech center, the company has expanded its workforce in Mexico with technical service, sales and administrative personnel. “Whenever a machinery company grows quickly, there’s an ever-present need for more customer service and technical assistance personnel,” noted Stadler. “Of course, new people must be found and trained.”
He went on to explain that rapid growth also means working smarter. Rather than waiting for a customer to reach out to them in a time of need, the company is proactively sending technicians to its customers and performing comprehensive machine inspections, identifying and correcting small issues before they become large ones. For this new operation, two service technicians are now in-country, one operating from the new tech center in Monterrey/Apodaca and another based in Guadalajara.
“This new facility solidifies our Mexican presence in the high-volume tube and solid bar production markets such as auto, appliance and aero, thus benefiting our current and future customers in many ways,” added Stadler. “We’re selling to a large number of companies in various markets, in-country, so it was a logical move for us to be here, in many ways.”
Other attendees at this grand opening included Rattunde personnel, sales representatives from the North American network, honored guests from the parent company in Germany, plus customers, prospective business partners and suppliers to the company.
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