Investing in the future

“You should invest even in bad times”, is the motto of the Metzinger Hans-Jürgen Geiger Maschinen-Vertrieb GmbH. The new exhibition hall has an area of 4,000 sq.m. in the James-Watt-Strasse. 110 m long, 36 m wide and 11 m high are the impressive dimensions of this new hall which was opened at the end of 2009. An additional superlative is the 20 ton crane which covers the whole area. Even the huge roof area is used profitably – a large array of solar panels provides energy. A display on the outside of the building shows how much energy is currently being produced.

“Seven years earlier we had already erected a new building with offices and an exhibition area opposite our latest building,” recalls Hans-Jürgen Geiger. In January the team moved into the larger and friendlier offices and thus inaugurated the new headquarters on the new site. Together with the old buildings in the Gutenbergstrasse, the company now has a total exhibition area of around 10,000 sq.m. In the old Geiger exhibition hall were around 500 machines, and the dealer is of course known all over the world for his emphasis on disc sanders and gear-cutting machines, mainly from Germany or Switzerland. “The slogan “Made in Germany” is still important for us”, says Geiger. Measurement technology plays an increasingly important role on which he wishes to concentrate in the future. The new exhibition hall will reflect this new emphasis. Names such as Zeiss, Stiefelmaier and Mauser represent German quality.

The economic crisis also left its mark on Geiger. “Our turnover dropped by almost 40%”, admits the dealer. Nowadays nobody buys a machine simply because it is cheap, but only because they really need it. Partly because of the increase in the number of insolvencies, the supply is greater than the demand. However, the customer is well advised not to buy his machines at auction but from a dealer. Here the machines can be “set up, demonstrated and tested.” At auctions it is only too easy to buy a pig in a poke. And after the purchase, no help is available.

For Geiger the German market is currently almost non-existent. He only does good business in Asia, in China, Korea, Thailand and India. “We and our machines are known all over the world”, says Geiger, not without pride. One of the reasons for this is his presence on trade fairs. This year Geiger has a 70 sq.m stand on Resale 2010. “One of the family is always on the move”, he says proudly. The management team includes, apart from Geiger himself, his brother Willy-Heinrich, his two daughters, Barbara Geiger-Berger and Claudia Geiger-Nannt as well as his nephew Michael Richter, each with a 20% share.

Dr. Rolf Langbein