Abel Metallsysteme convinces with the right strategy

 

Abel Metallsysteme GmbH & Co. KG from Geisa has been honoured for the best target group specialisation with the 7th Strategy Prize awarded by the Wartburg region at the Feng Shui Convention Centre in Eisenach. 90 per cent of firms and businesses have no strategy or the wrong one. The European Communication Academy for Training, Consultancy and Projects (EKA e.v.) is convinced of this fact. In cooperation with the StrategieForum e.V., the EKA e.v. therefore brought the strategy prize into being in 2001.
This year the 7th strategy prize awarded by the Wartburg region went to Abel Metallsysteme GmbH & Co. KG. The family-run company from Geisa convinced the jury with its sustainable corporate strategy and the best target group specialisation. Sales manager, Tobias Blum, and production manager, Christian Klinzing, from Abel Metallsysteme proudly accepted the prize and with special respect towards all their colleagues. Tobias Blum is convinced that the company’s success is only possible in cooperation with the over 70 committed employees.

“Well-thought-out strategies secure company growth and hence the jobs of countless people. Our Wartburg region benefits considerably from this and is thereby taken forward. That radiates across the whole of Thuringia,” emphasises the patron and commissioner of the Wartburg district, Reinhard Krebs. “This success became possible not least because the company concentrated completely on a very particular target group and developed the whole technology and the market consistently on this basis,” says the presenter of the award, Thomas Rupp, steering committee member of the federal association, StrategieForum e.V.
The family-run company has been deeply rooted at its Geisa location since 1920. Everything started with industrial wood processing, before the course was set in 1950 for the production of metal goods. By the mid 2000s, the company was successfully producing accessories for the vehicle and furniture industry as a subcontractor as well as parts for balustrade construction. “Cheaper suppliers from the Far East increasingly changed the competitive position, however, and made a rethink necessary,” remembers the managing director, Klaus Peter Abel, who manages the company in its third generation.

When it came to the new concept, Abel Metallsysteme opted to closely observe the market in the railing construction segment and consistently focused on the customer benefits as well as the customer’s problems – away from individual stamped parts towards the development of complex and tested balustrade solutions. A tactic that came off and to this day registers growing market penetration.
With its committed team and by using ultra-modern machinery, Abel Metallsysteme has developed from a provider of customer-specific paid work to a generator of ideas, pioneer and producer of individual fall protection devices and balustrade systems. Numerous patents and protected products, such as the VITRUM glass fall protection and the CAVUS hollow-chamber profile screw anchor, have emerged from this period. The patented AQUA VIVA balustrade system with an integrated balcony drainage system represents a unique solution on the market so far.
Not least because of its innovative spirit and the new strategic direction, Abel Metallsysteme is also increasingly growing beyond national borders. The approach of working with the architects and window makers right from the planning stage and of developing products that solve complex customer requirements has proven itself. “It is fun to develop common solutions for a construction project with planners and processors,” says Klaus Peter Abel. “We are thus getting involved in complex structural achievements with our increasing competence and being appreciated as a partner at eye level.”

The aim over the next few years is to grow further as an innovative supplier in the all-glass balustrade system segment and to establish Abel Metallsysteme in Europe. The strategic course is set for this.