Koenen Group celebrates triple anniversary and sets course for the future with investor

Next goal: Global Player

Europe's leading manufacturer of precision printing tools Christian Koenen GmbH celebrates its triple company anniversary with the new owner. The company wants to continue to grow internationally with digitisation and service excellence. The conditions for this are very good.

From electrics to electronics and microelectronics, from industrialisation to automation and digitisation: Anyone who consciously experienced the last 20 years is a witness to rapid technical development. Screens became TFTs, phones became smartphones. Cassette and video recorders disappeared. People communicate with household appliances and machines, cars will soon drive autonomously, and the days of cash are numbered. And every development step needs new electronics.

This was already the case 55 years ago, when Isabella and Karl-Heinz Koenen took the plunge into independence by trading in screen printing fabrics for electronics production and later laid the foundation for the company's success with their own production which continues to this day. After the modest beginnings in the Munich flat and rented basement rooms, the young company moved to Ottobrunn-Riemerling, today's headquarters in the south of Munich, in the early 1980s.

With stencils all the way to the top

The smaller the electronics, the more precise the printing tools have to be. Christian Koenen, their son, recognised this connection early on and founded the company of the same name 20 years ago, whose acronym still stands for innovation and state-of-the-art production facilities. The entry into SMD stencil printing established the rise of Christian Koenen GmbH to become the largest European manufacturer of precision printing tools for electronics production.

With the second plant in Ottobrunn and the first cutting laser, the production of precision stencils began in 1994, followed by numerous core technologies such as electropolishing or a new process for distortion-free welding of the metal stencils. in 2015, the subsidiary took over the parent company and now supplies both product groups from a single source. This was followed by innovations such as the CK step stencil which, thanks to a patented milling process with different sheet thicknesses and defined pressure ramps, enables precision printing on different levels in one printing cycle. Durable plasma coating contributes to perfect stencil printing.

Anniversary with service excellence

In order to meet the increasing global demand, the family-owned company built a third plant in the Hungarian industrial location of Györ ten years ago. Christian Koenen Kft. operates as an independent stencil production company and completes the anniversary trio. With a total of nine stencil lasers and five precision milling machines, the company has sufficient capacity for the international market, according to Michael Brianda, who has been at the helm of Christian Koenen GmbH since March 2018.

Under the leadership of the long-standing industry professional, the company gained a top position in international competition with variable production chains and outstanding service quality. "In the electronics industry, it is no longer enough to process customer data and produce tools from it." Brianda knows this from many years of management experience in the highly dynamic electronics industry. "Our customers expect the optimal mix of competence, quality and reliability, or service excellence for short." Crucial to this is a successful combination of fast production and customer advice, as well as continuous investment in production machinery and inspection systems," says the head of the group. Each stencil is electronically inspected before delivery. Reliability includes stringent maintenance programmes for all machines and the ability to correctly estimate and promise delivery dates at all times.

Unique pieces with 24-hour delivery time

Thanks to a comprehensive digitisation of customer communication and accompanying measures such as employee training and the annual target development programme ZEP, the group of companies has succeeded in delivering individual precision tools with batch size 1 within 24 hours - and this with around 75,000 manufactured products per year. The 300-square-metre hall extension opened in November 2021 in the immediate vicinity of the logistics centre also contributes to fast processing. "Our complaint rate is now less than one per cent, and delivery reliability is over 97 per cent," reports Frank Eberhard Günther, Technical Manager, proudly. "Our customers can rely on us. When we pledge to deliver, we deliver."

The Koenen Group laid the internal foundation for this leap in performance even before the pandemic, during which the industry developed digitally at a rapid pace. "We kept up the pace and took the opportunity to make internal communication and production planning even faster, more transparent and more efficient with the help of online tools," explains Frank Eberhard Günther, citing the morning stand-up meeting as an example. In the process, the department heads of the key areas report on the current order situation for a maximum of 15 minutes and secure the short delivery times together with the management by making quick decisions. "In addition, we provide transparency and orientation with planning monitors in production and for the customer advisors," adds the technical manager. In this way, all products can be tracked in a prioritised manner. The software developed for this purpose is constantly being optimised.

Cooperative leadership style

In addition to digitisation, the management also relies on a cooperative leadership style as another success factor. "We want our employees to get involved. Flat hierarchies with short decision-making paths are important for this. This is the only way we can produce the demanding customer orders in top quality." However, fast delivery is not synonymous with fast work, the managing director emphasises. It is much more about continuous process improvements and service excellence, which is only possible in constructive cooperation.

For this reason, too, the familiar corporate culture of the Group must be preserved. "The social fabric is important for a manufacturing company like us," says Brianda. "We have to make sure that we don't lose our personality in the face of all the information overload and that we take enough time for each other. We keep close to the workforce through social events and celebrations. Once a month I also meet with the Hungarian and German management, alternating between Ottobrunn and Györ."

Growth with new co-owner

The industry-leading key figures also make the company attractive for investors. in 2022, Christian Koenen sold shares in the company to the investment company Afinum, thus orienting the company towards international growth. "We have found a reliable, partner-shareholder who invests exclusively in successful companies," says the company founder and managing director. Afinum, also based in Munich, respects the independence of its companies and actively promotes their growth.

The investor offers the group of companies both continuity and attractive prospects for the future, emphasises Christian Koenen. "We have jointly developed a five-year plan for intensive international growth." In addition, Afinum attaches great importance to a resilient ESG strategy. "The issue of sustainability has always been important to us," Koenen explains. "Afinum supports us on our way to the targeted CO2 neutrality with valuable impulses, experience values and a professional network."

The market situation is favourable

One important growth area is the field of alternative energies with fuel and solar cells. The automotive sector is showing high demand for electronics and semiconductor components in the wake of electromobility. Compared to combustion engines, electric cars need about three times as much electronics. The expansion of the 5G mobile communications standard requires new, powerful components - for smartphones, industrial communication and autonomous driving.

As miniaturisation continues, medical technology is also becoming an important growth area for the Koenen Group. Interesting fields of application include sensors for hearing aids or enzyme pressure on blood sugar measuring strips. Only recently, a new generation of sensors was presented that circulates in the bloodstream and could enable disease diagnoses via the smartphone in the future.

The management is certain that the group of companies will significantly increase its potential with the new orientation. Sales are to be restructured and important growth markets are to be developed. This still includes semiconductor manufacturing, which is producing ever smaller components and increasingly shifting back to Europe and the USA. "In recent years, we have been able to win several leading semiconductor manufacturers as customers," reports Brianda. "We are proud that our custom-made CK step stencils with plasma coating are being supplied worldwide from Germany in increasing numbers."

Customers want added value

This year's triple anniversary - 55 years of Koenen GmbH, 20 years of Christian Konen GmbH and 10 years of Christian Koenen Kft. - once again offers the group a reason to celebrate. The global player with family DNA comes into play wherever high-precision printing processes are required. Whether for semiconductor, automotive, medical, aerospace, industrial or energy technology, whether SMD and semicon stencils or precision screens for sensor production: Thanks to its various production chains, the group is able to quickly realise individual requirements. If required, it also supports its customers with process consulting and evaluations in its own application centre.

"In the end, users opt for the greatest possible added value," says Michael Brianda. With 55 years of experience, highly efficient manufacturing chains and a dedicated team that lives and breathes service excellence every day, we are optimally prepared for the future challenges of electronics manufacturing."

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