Leading plastic window frame manufacturer does not deviate from strategy      

Innovate, so invest always a leap into the future

Despite the fierce headwinds in many areas of society, KUFA from IJmuiden does not let itself get off the hook. The goal remains clear: innovation is the basis of its own existence. By definition, investment is always part of the deal. To use a cliché, to govern is to look ahead. Speaking is Henk Weber. "From the asylum crisis and the constantly looming specter of inflation to a shaky economy, gloomy forecasts, nitrogen misery and a construction industry in the Netherlands that is increasingly 'on hold,' we do not let ourselves be distracted. We are continuously building a leap into the future. Also this year: we have once again made major investments in new machinery."

According to Henk, those new machines, which will be installed at the second location in IJmuiden, will be put into service by the end of this year. And that means the stock that was always there will move. That will go to the building that was bought recently, also in IJmuiden. There is 860m² of space there for that stock. Henk explains that the investment is for production machines for (lifting) sliding doors. 

Delivery times: 6-8 weeks

"What used to be done manually in production is now becoming semi-/fully automated. This further automation not only provides efficiency but also the error rate goes down. To this we then link the scaling down of inventory. This is possible because we produce smarter and also because we have made good agreements with our suppliers. In other words, through this investment we create short throughput times in production and we can guarantee our partners a delivery time of 6 to 8 weeks, where the market average is about 20 weeks."

Henk acknowledges that many will perceive these investments as something "against the market. He has to laugh. "That's true. But, we have always done that. But we have never lost sight of the goal: we always want to try to improve in delivering to our partners in line with the market. So, if you want to innovate, you have to invest. In everything."

The latter is certainly not an understatement from Henk and his colleague Didier Holslag. "In recent years, we have already been able to make many visible investments pay off. The Kufa Online Calculator (KOC) springs to mind, for example. Meanwhile, version 4.0 was delivered a short time ago. The system is working well. We see a conversion rate of 37%, which means that more than a third of the quotes made on the system actually become orders. I think this is a very high percentage."

Didier: "When I think further about what we spent our money on, I immediately come to all the new product groups in the RenoS9000^® series. Further, take a look at the patent we have acquired on the InviKU hidden hinge system^®, which is applicable for each profile and also with SKG-2 burglar resistance. And, had I already mentioned all the variations within the Komo certified single and double HVL^®? In short, despite a time out in the market - yes, call it a hefty headwind - we are always looking ahead. We once made the choice to want to be an innovative company. Well, so we don't deviate from that. We take the leap into the future every day."