The company Mesutronic Gerätebau GmbH in Lower Bavaria has made its name worldwide as a specialist for foreign particle inspection systems. The company‘s high-precision devices and tailor-made system solutions have made loyal customers out of companies big and small.
By Alfons Strohmaier
Behind Karl-Heinz Dürrmeier as Managing Director of Mesutronic Gerätebau GmbH lie almost 30 years of constant and successful company history. Dürrmeier founded the company in 1992 with four other partners and started with five employees in a small hall. Last year, he handed over the management of the sales & marketing division to Christian Boxleitner. Today, the medium-sized company based in Kirchberg im Wald is undisputedly one of the world's leading developers and manufacturers of innovative foreign body detection systems such as metal detectors, metal separators and X-ray inspection equipment. The company has a modern production facility with over 9,000 m2 of space and employs around 220 people.
In the meantime, Mesutronic devices can be found in around 150 countries, with China, the USA and Turkey currently being the most important export markets for the company in the Bavarian Forest. Thanks to an extensive network, the company is represented by service and sales partners in more than 50 countries. The company also managed well the recent Covid crisis difficulties that have characterized recent months. Last year, turnover increased again, and the order books are full for this year.
According to Mr Dürrmeier, the crisis has reinforced the safety aspect among manufacturers even more. “No one in the commercial sector wants to suffer a recall now. That would do too much damage to the image. So, the demands on the industrial sector correspond with this, especially those on private label manufacturers”, he explains. The pressure from political circles, NGOs, consumer protection entities and consumers themselves are constantly increasing. And while new production lines are being outfitted with the very latest inspection systems, many enterprises, including small and mid-sized companies, feel the necessity to retrofit their existing facilities with most modern inspection systems as well.
And this is where Mesutronic is taking on an increasingly significant role. Mr Dürrmeier explains: “Our medium-sized company structure means we‘re at eye-level with the companies. We recognize their needs and understand their situation”. This enables Mesutronic to accommodate any particularities individual manufacturers might have, to provide them with detailed advice and to work in conjunction with each customer in developing a tailormade system solution packet for everything from high-frequency metal detectors to X-ray-based foreign particle detectors and more. The technical equipment to be used has to be decided upon on a case-to-case basis; sometimes both systems are combined. Older systems in particular require a great deal of flexibility and special solutions. “This is where we‘re unbeatable”, says the Managing Director.
All this means that at Mesutronic the talk isn’t about “selling”, but rather perfectly supporting customers in their procurement process. “A close relationship and proximity to the customer is a priority for us, especially in the service field, where you have to act quickly. If a Mesutronic device breaks down, then the whole production line comes to a standstill”, emphasizes Mr Boxleitner. Following his apprenticeship and subsequent initial job at Mesutronic, the 47-year-old completed his studies and MBA and gained important strategy and management experience at internationally active companies. In July 2020, he returned to Mesutronic to prepare for the management position of leading sales and marketing. “Christian brings with him the ideal combination of technical and commercial expertise, of down-to-earth attitude and broad international experience,” says Dürrmeier about the ideal person to fill this position.
Through all this time, Mesutronic has grown with its challenges, for instance the unbelievable dynamics and increasing speeds of production and packaging lines. Today, high-precision sensors work on the lines, detecting unwanted foreign bodies of all kinds and removing the contaminated products from the production process in fractions of a second, without having to interrupt it. In areas such as the plastics or textile industry, the devices are mainly used for machine protection, in the food or pharmaceutical industry mostly for quality control.
The company‘s performance up to now highlights its expert capabilities. “We were also fortunate in some situations”, says Mr Dürrmeier humbly when talking about Mesutronic‘s strong performance. But let‘s give credit where credit‘s due: with the long-term strategy consistently focused on sustainability, the company‘s stringent prioritization of quality and a clear focus on the customer, Mr Dürrmeier and his team have created the basis for all this success and persistently kept it on course. The company’s very broad portfolio of products and solutions – Dürrmeier refers to it as a ”big building block set” –, its high-level vertical range of manufacturing, loyal regional supply partners and its elaborate, comprehensive range of after-sales service are a testament to the validity of its customer proximity in practice, even in the face of some of today‘s experts viewing these concepts as old-fashioned.
Mesutronic’s broadly diverse customer structure is also a distinguishing characteristic of this mid-sized company. Mesutronic detection systems for metallic and non-metallic particles are currently in use in the confectionery, snacks, dairy, bakery, meat, pharmaceutical, hygiene and many other sectors. The food sector accounts for more than half of the company’s turnover. “Every customer, regardless of whether they are large or small, is important to us,” says MD Dürrmeier. Thus, the outstanding company from Lower Bavaria continues to serve smaller niches such as nonwoven inspection, from which many a competitor withdrew years ago. The specialist also benefits in other segments from its experience in terms of line speed or necessary interference resistance.
One decisive step in the company’s history was the sale of the partner‘s shares to Indus Holding AG in Bergisch-Gladbach two years ago, which Mr Dürrmeier also regards as a stroke of good fortune. “With Indus we have found a parent company where we can retain our typical mid-sized company virtues while continuing to grow rapidly on an international scale. As a result, the company succession has no effect on existing customer and supplier relations or on our international sales partners. All of our existing training and working relationships continue like before”.
In the meantime, probably more than 40,000 inspection devices of all types and sizes from Kirchberg im Wald, whether Metron 07 CI tunnel metal detectors, EasyScope X-ray inspection systems and the associated separation concepts, have been installed over the past three decades. Especially in the early years, the company was always more concerned with keeping up with growth and the latest technological trends “than with counting the equipment delivered yesterday”, says Dürrmeier. The latest results of this fprogressive orientation are diverse networking options in the spirit of Industry 4.0, remote service capabilities and seamless event documentation for complete traceability.
