Interview with Ramon Brauer, Managing Director of Adex bv.
Ramon, looking back at 2021, give us your thoughts about this year.
2021 was quite an exciting year for Adex. After 2020, that was filled with COVID issues worldwide, everybody was a little bit careful about what was going to happen. The market started to show positive signs but nobody really knew if this was temporary or could last longer. Luckily the growth remained present during the rest of the year and it resulted in a very nice growth for Adex this year. We would really like to thank our customers for the fact that we are able to grow together with them.
A big milestone for 2021 was the fact that we received the patent for our Stone technology. This gives us the confirmation that this technology is really an innovation for the extrusion market. For us 2021 could be described as “The year of the Stone” but then again; the Stone technology is here to stay so we don’t want to limit it to one specific year. It will be one of our main technologies to provide to the market. The Stone makes it possible to achieve a more extreme spreading in a compact package. Especially with the rising steel costs the Stone technology will be a ‘game changer’ in the die market. (Longer lifetime and smaller package) We don’t need to convince those who already work with the Stone. For the customers and prospect that are not yet known with this technology we are trying to show this to them with our TechTalks.
However the biggest news for Adex was announced in July.
Adex was founded in 1977 by Jan Aalberts and was one of the first companies to be part of the Aalberts group. But after 44 years the time came to go different directions. In July Adex joined the Phoenix International Group based in Italy being the worldwide leading die manufacturer. For us it was a very warm welcome within the Phoenix group and we have been in good contact with our new colleagues from the other Phoenix plants worldwide. We would like to thanks Aalberts for all of the years together and bringing us to where Adex is right now.
What will be the biggest change for Adex?
For our customers the change will not be noticeable. Adex will remain Adex. Of course internally some things will change but these will only be in a positive way. For Adex it is great to belong to a group of die manufacturers. You speak the same (technical) language and understand the market. In 2018 we started to use a different strategy for our dies. As a part of the Phoenix group we are able to focus even more on this strategy and make sure that we can help our customers even more with our technology dies. So we will be able to accelerate our strategy plan even more. With this our customers will benefit from our innovations.
Benefits through innovation?
As already mentioned we got the patent for our Stone technology. This is an innovation that was an internal development of Adex. Looking at our design department we know that they keep looking for new innovations to solve problems they encounter. We see the willingness to innovate together with our customer as a part of our DNA. Innovations like the “2-in-1 Stone technology”, “Compact die” and “Nest Technology” are things that our customers expect from us. Only when working closely together these kind of innovations can be made. 2022 will be the year that we will focus on innovation. Trying to bring the benefits of our innovations to the market. This shows the strength of Adex; the willingness to innovate is embedded in the people that work at Adex.
Anything else you want to share with us?
I can only emphasize that I’m very proud of what we have achieved in 2021. We did this together with our Adex family. Together with the Phoenix Group we look confident to what 2022 will bring us.
