Category: entrafin

Successful, medium-sized companies

- MJ Webshops e.K -

In the interview:

15 years ago, M.J. Webshops e.K. began producing printed mouse pads with Mr. Mousepad and selling them to business customers. With the founder's existing expertise of more than 20 years in the printing sector and the energetic support of an employee, the idea became reality. Based in Hamburg, Mr. Mousepad now sells to more than 10 different countries in Europe and has already convinced more than 12,000 corporate customers of its service. In recent years, more than 13 million mousepads have been produced, printed, tested and shipped by Mr. Mousepad. Every employee is an expert in his or her field and knows everything about mousepads from the FF. The B2B-oriented webshop has meanwhile been expanded to include the B2C webshop "Geist-und-Geschenk.de".

Mr Johanssen, what is the current hot topic in the advertising industry?

Delivery problems - we are lucky because we already focused on regional partners years ago. Due to short delivery routes and more sustainable materials such as mousepads made of recyclable paper, we are also creating more sustainability and environmental protection. However, rising procurement prices are also becoming an increasingly relevant issue for us.

How do you deal with it?

At the moment, we want to keep prices stable, so we are trying to compensate for a falling margin per mousepad or even per promotional item in general with higher sales figures.

À propos: How were the sales figures during the Corona crisis?

Our clients' marketing budgets were severely cut back in 2020, so many trade fairs and events were not attended or did not take place at all. Therefore, 2020 was a difficult year. As a solution, we have strongly built up the B2C business with webshops and extensions of the product range. We can now profit from this line of business and hope to more than compensate for the sales losses from previous years. Especially the business with coasters made of printed cork in large quantities and promotional gifts such as mugs, cups and jerseys is now picking up strongly. Cooperation with clubs is particularly important here, and we have already been able to establish two good partnerships.

What makes them stand out?

Quality and speed: Our products have to last, this is very important to us and our customers. We also have to be fast, so we send out already individually printed promotional materials in the classic quantity of 50 to 5,000 to our customers within 2-3 days.

How are you developing your business areas?

On the one hand, by cultivating our regular customers, which regularly generates a number of referrals. On the other hand, we push the acquisition of new customers through Google ads, for example via simple search queries such as "print mousepads". When it comes to social media, we follow a clear dichotomy: for Mr. Mouspad, social media advertising is not an issue, as mousepads are mainly sought in the B2B sector and social media addresses other products. For Geist-und-Geschenk.de in the B2C sector, advertising can be better integrated here, and mousepads can also be marketed there - but in a different style.

What convinced you about entrafin purchase financing?

For our day-to-day business, we use the overdraft facility of our house bank. However, if we receive a large order or are generally in a moment of growth, we can make very flexible use of entrafin purchase financing. We can decide together with our supplier at any time whether an invoice should be financed via entrafin or not. In fact, both sides gain liquidity: we have 4 months until payment, but our supplier still gets his money immediately.

Successful, medium-sized companies

- DGIS AG -

In the interview:

DGIS AG is a quality association of leading companies from the building technology sector and forms the interface between the specialised trade, building experts and sales. The partners want to ensure healthy and safe living for their customers, especially in the event of damage, and thus protect the health of building users and enhance the value of the home. The services of the damage service include, in particular, drying, leakage detection and moisture measurement, as well as fire protection and germ reduction.

Mr Droste, as CEO of DGIS AG, what keeps you most busy at the moment?

Climate change: there are more and more heavy rain events and many cellars are filling up. We have therefore been pre-financing the import of building dryers for several years. Modern devices for dehumidification with HEPA filters are used so that pollutants are not dispersed. We support the promotion of this innovation through our efforts.

Why is this topic so important?

During a presentation on this topic, meteorologist Andreas Jäger (Servus TV, Austria) explained that due to the slowing down of the jet stream, the highs and lows that determine our weather patterns meander more strongly than in the past, causing weather patterns to increasingly settle locally. This leads to periods of heat becoming longer and more intense, but in return, lows can slow down just as much and become almost settled. As a result, even light rain can overload the drainage system over a long period of time, resulting in an immense increase in pre-draining cellars and moisture damage. The field of building drying is growing rapidly and needs to be strengthened.

Climate change also goes hand in hand with environmental protection. As an entrepreneur, how do you promote environmental protection?

Heating systems and drinking water systems require expansion vessels (MAG: membrane expansion vessel). In closed systems, the "more or less water" that results from heating and cooling must be able to expand. For this purpose, there is a water part and a gas part in such vessels, which are separated by a rubber membrane. Such vessels are installed in almost all systems. In these systems, the gas diffuses away through the system, comparable to our vehicle tyres. Therefore, the maintenance technician must refill this gas reservoir annually, which is done during maintenance. Refrigerant is often used in this process, which causes a lot of environmental pollution. We have developed a special cartridge for this purpose, which replaces this refrigerant with normal air in an environmentally friendly way.

How do you finance your new projects?

Especially when importing from overseas, we use entrafin for interim financing due to the long delivery routes and transport times. With this, we bridge the 4 months starting with the delivery of the supplier until the payment of our customer. We find the connection of the digital platform particularly pleasant, which enables us to communicate quickly with our suppliers - with a fast and personal service.

Suitable video links on these two topics:

Dryer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LA19CQP3vI&t=1s

MAG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F0M19KJD4o

Successful, medium-sized companies

- ARI MotorsGmbH -

In the interview:

ARI Motors GmbH is the supplier of what is currently the smallest electric transporter with road approval in Germany. The name ARI stands for the Japanese name of the ant - and our vehicles are just as powerful, agile and versatile. Our declared goal is to bring cost-effective and powerful electric transporters onto German and European roads. These are optimally tailored for use on "the last mile". They are suitable for small businesses and medium-sized companies as well as for large corporations in fleet use.

You can be counted among the classic family businesses that characterise our medium-sized entrepreneurial landscape in Germany. What is your recipe for success for your good company development?

As is often the case, the right idea at the right time was the beginning of our company. After that, perseverance and diligence laid the first foundation for success. With increasing orders, the selection of the right employees was enormously important in order to shape the philosophy and the orientation of the company and to continuously bring it forward. A mixture of experience and a healthy gut feeling has always helped us very reliably.

How do you assess the German market for small (utility) electric vehicles? What are the challenges to be overcome in 2021?

We are just at the beginning of a change not only towards electromobility, but also towards the reorganisation of traffic space and the increasing acceptance of light vehicles, which provide mobility especially for the last mile. A lot will change in the next few years, and service providers and their customers will ensure that light electric commercial vehicles will also become more of a part of the cityscape through changed consumer behaviour.

What alternative financing options do you use within your financial structure to increase your production and optimise your working capital?

As ARI Motors, we have so far been completely self-financed and use neither loans nor financial investors. Only in the financing of purchases were we able to use the services of Entrafin at an early stage. Entrafin provided us with purchase financing for our goods at a very early stage of our company and recognised our needs in an uncomplicated and individual way and offered the corresponding service. We can strongly recommend the quick and easy processing as well as the reliable payment at Entrafin.

Successful, medium-sized companies

- Schönborner Armaturen GmbH -

In the interview:

Schönborner Armaturen GmbH employs about 40 people and has an annual turnover of about 3.5 million euros. Schönborner produces control elements for the gas, water and wastewater industry in the municipal sector. This includes installation sets for house connection fittings and mains fittings up to DN 600, as well as operating keys and special designs, but also small and large series parts for regional customers with the in-house CNC department. The company supplies the products to wholesalers in Germany and Europe, such as France, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway.

You can be counted among the classic family businesses that characterise our medium-sized entrepreneurial landscape in Germany. What is your recipe for success for your good company development?

Absolutely, the Ebert family is the only shareholder, there are no other owners. The company was founded in 1992 as a small commercial agency by Mr Ebert. In 2006, the company moved from Schönborn (hence the company name) to Doberlug-Kirchhain. There, the large expansion with production facility, warehouse and offices took place. We currently employ about 40 people, including 6 trainees.

We owe our success on the one hand to Mr. Ebert as a creative head who is always developing and pushing new projects. On the other hand, we have a very fruitful cooperation with the Technical University in Chemnitz and Cottbus. Joint research projects (ZIM programme) promote continuous new product development and thus solid sales growth. This also enables us to stand out from the competition with new products that are fit for the future. Continuous further developments and association work, especially in the water industry, are essential for us.

How do you assess the German market for fittings and their operating elements? What challenges will you have to overcome in 2021?

For this, it is first important to understand that we produce the operating elements for fittings. For example, there are various valves and fittings on the channels below ground level. But the operating elements are at ground level. We create the corresponding connections between the two units. Our customers in this context are mainly wholesalers. Indirectly, there is thus a high dependence on the expenditure of the municipalities for road construction, new road construction and waterworks. Here, it can still be assumed that the market is experiencing nice growth.

But foreign business is also picking up, especially with new fittings and business with Scandinavia. Our controls have to be equipped in such a way that the signal flow for leak detection is possible. With the new products and new functions, we have good opportunities on the market in Germany and Scandinavia. Despite the fact that one of our most important sales channels is wholesale, we generally do not do mass business, but especially business with special solutions. If you just want to produce mass, you have strong competition with simple products from the East.

We are also struggling with the shortage of skilled workers. Our employees mainly come from the surrounding area, so the general potential is limited in a more sparsely populated region. This makes it all the more important for us to find staff for training and to retain them afterwards. Sometimes even the competition tries to poach skilled workers.

What alternative financing options do you use within your financial structure to increase your production and optimise your working capital?

In principle, we use the working capital loan from our house bank for our day-to-day business. Investments, on the other hand, are made via special financiers (MMV Bank, Grenke, etc.), and often these financings are also offered via the supplier. We can often build on the corresponding initial financing and provide customised financing for the next products and projects with these partners. We use entrafin's purchase financing for the cost of materials. The 4-month payment term fits exactly for the production period up to the point of sale. This allows us to purchase more and ultimately generate more turnover.

Successful, medium-sized companies

- Cosmetic Service GmbH -

In the interview:

Cosmetic Service GmbH has been a reliable contract manufacturer for high-quality cosmetic products - Made in Germany - since 1976. Its long-standing customers include top cosmetics and health brands that value innovative products, trendy concepts, flexible structures, high quality standards and short delivery times. The company is a contract manufacturer with strong development expertise.

Cosmetic Service was founded back in 1976, but the current situation in the Corona crisis is presenting even experienced companies with new challenges. How did the pandemic affect your company?

Due to the Corona pandemic, we were able to generate 110% growth compared to the previous year. We have achieved this by winning new customers, whom we have also convinced of our products besides disinfectants. Thus, this growth will bring us 2 years forward in our plan.

What problems did you have to deal with when switching to hygiene articles and disinfectants?

Hygiene and disinfection products have been part of our product range for X years and can therefore draw on many years of experience in this area. No changeover was necessary here.

In the cosmetics industry, hygiene concepts are also very important in your own company. How do you protect your employees and which processes did you have to change?

In our company, very high hygiene standards apply as a matter of principle; this entails the production of cosmetics and hygiene products. For some of our biggest customers, such as Disney, Mattel, Sebamed, Fressnapf and Esprit, these standards have been raised again. Gloves, face masks and a distance of 2m between employees have therefore already been standard for us. Further additional measures according to the Association of the Chemical Industry were then added.

How do you assess the Chinese medical market? Will there be protracted consequences here due to the pandemic?

"Man is a creature of habit" already said Gustac Freytag in the 19th century. We only source our material in Europe, but we have been registering products for our customers in Asia for 30 years. Therefore, I do not believe that the established trade relations between China and the rest of the world will be damaged by this pandemic. We are already seeing no disadvantage. Our customers are still buying and catching up on the consumption they missed. In my opinion, the effort will be completely forgotten in 1-2 years.

What alternative financing options do you use within your financial structure to increase your production and optimise your working capital?

Growth is of great importance to us. We want to continue to expand the success of our company. But growth requires capital. Capital for larger orders of materials, higher production costs, additional equipment purchases and human resources. Here we rely on a balanced financial structure of private deposits and purchase financing for our goods.

Successful, medium-sized companies

- Schlafteam GmbH -

In the interview:

Schlafteam GmbH conjures up high-quality solid wood beds and matching solid wood furniture for the bedroom, true to the motto "Design meets nature". The woods come from sustainably managed forests, are manufactured by hand in our own carpentry workshop in Upper Franconia and that since 1887.

What makes your company unique?

We are a family business, and we are particularly proud of that. For five generations our company has been in the hands of the Holhut family. To be precise - since 1887. Since then we have been producing furniture of the highest quality on the edge of the Frankenwald nature reserve in northern Bavaria.

Today father and daughter manage the company with 28 employees. Peter Holhut designs, develops and constructs all Schlafteam furniture. His goal: naturally biological and timeless furniture. His passion for wood and design is in every piece of furniture.

His daughter Yvonne Holhut is the managing director and always strives to develop the company for the benefit of her customers. She is responsible for sales, marketing and business development. Her company should be customer-oriented and strong for the future. For her this includes sustainability and biological quality.

Competition in the market for beds and mattresses is fierce. What makes your beds so special? What innovations are actually possible with such a classic product?

Our workshops are located on more than 7,000 square metres in Kupferberg/Northern Bavaria. Here all pieces of furniture are manufactured by Schlafteam. From design to complete production, everything is Made in Germany.

We have also set up a showroom for our customers on our premises. Here you can test, inspect and try out all our furniture live on over 250 square metres.

An ecological and sustainable corporate culture is very important to you. How far does this affect the structures and processes in the company?

We love wood -

• We only process pure raw materials that can be returned to the natural cycle at any time.
• We mainly use renewable or recyclable raw materials in consideration of the circular economy and sustainability.  
• For our goods we use exclusively natural products, which we select according to our own particularly strict specifications.
• We process only certified wood. Our Swiss stone pine comes from Austria. We only cooperate with sawmills that guarantee sustainable forestry. This is controlled randomly. Already during the design of the furniture we pay attention to the most efficient use of materials.
• Before the wood is used in production, it is also tested for radioactivity.
• We attach great importance to the fact that the woods are free of pesticides and harmful substances. In our own factory in Kupferberg/Northern Bavaria they are processed without formaldehyde into low-warpage, stable panels. They are only refined with our own natural oil according to the Schlafteam purity law.
• Without varnishes, stains or other chemical ingredients, the wood remains free of toxins and retains its excellent properties: it absorbs moisture, releases it slowly and thus ensures a pleasant and healthy indoor climate.
• We mainly choose natural materials, as long as the functionality is guaranteed.
• We use auxiliary materials that are produced on a natural basis and do not contain any problematic substances.
• We handle these valuable resources very consciously and carefully.
• Schlafteam itself strives for a "pure production". In other words, to optimise the use of energy in the company and minimise water consumption and waste. We use the wood shavings from production to generate heat and generate solar power on our large roof areas.

We love wood, so only natural care oil is used for our solid wood furniture. This protects the wood of our furniture and gives it an elegant, matt shine. Because we do not want to hide wood under a layer of varnish, but openly show its traces of life.

Consistently of course until the end: We treat the surface of our wooden furniture with care oil, which we developed ourselves with a manufacturer from our region: the Marienölmühle from Marktleugast. The oil consists of natural linseed oil from northern Bavaria and mineral pigments. Our wood care oil therefore smells pleasantly, is solvent-free and does not release any toxic vapours. It is mixed and bottled by ourselves.

Which milestones in the development of Schlafteam GmbH were particularly decisive on the way to today's very successful company?

We used to be a supplier to the bed retail trade. Since 2017 we have our own internet shop (www.schlafteam.de) which gives us much more possibilities and is growing from year to year, this has been the most important milestone in our company so far.

What challenges did you have to face and what tips and lessons did you learn from them?

The biggest challenge so far has been rethinking and creating the Internet shop.

This went so far that we even bought our own photo studio with a photographer to be able to act better and faster.

In addition to the standards, they also manufacture individually made to measure. To what extent are digitalised or automated processes possible? And where will the development here go in the future?

By using 5-axis CNC milling machines we make it possible: your dream bed according to your wishes. Show us your ideas, your sketches or inspirational photos.

In close cooperation with you we manufacture your dream bed. In doing so, we are also happy to consider special colours or individual stain tones. Of course, we also manufacture beds in oversize - for example as a family bed - or according to Feng Shui measurements. You can also get metal-free wardrobes and chests of drawers from us, just tell us your wishes and we will take care of it.

Within the last few years you have created a well functioning e-commerce. Which steps were decisive for this?

The decisive factor was our Internet shop, as everything here must be perfectly coordinated in order to provide optimum customer service.

How has your entrafin purchase financing affected your growth?

entrafin purchase financing helps us to get lower prices from our suppliers, which means that we can put more money into advertising, which in turn increases our order intake and is therefore the right way to go.