Texas is calling: Company from Mühlhausen is taking off in the Wild West

The dual leadership of a medium-sized company based in Mühlhausen manages the jump across the pond: with its new site, S&S wants to massively expand its market position.

About three years ago Mareike Hilke and Jens Meyer took over the leadership of the company „Schliess- und Sicherungssysteme“ (shortly „S&S“) in Mühlhausen. Upon the advice of long-standing general manager Jörg Breitbarth to the company‘s shareholders, the duo was appointed to the general management.

While Meyer is responsible for the technical aspects, Hilke takes care of the commercial part. The dual leadership is responsible for more than 200 employees.

During the course of the last years, eleven apprentices in the areas engineering, production and warehouse management could be recruited. It has by now more and more been observed that qualified professionals apply for positions in the Mühlhausen company, notes Jens Meyer. These are partially from the automotive and engineering sector. „Everything is going really well – as it should. Our order books are luckily full. “,

Doors, tables, windows, partition walls, evacuation systems bike and ski holders as well as steps and racks for different types of trains, as well as burglary proof doors for wind energy plants, even emergency exit systems for the London Tube are produced in S&S‘ headquarters in Mühlhausen. Great emphasis is put on precision, innovation and skilled craftsmanship.

Subsidiary Company in Dallas opened

As business is going well, the company is now expanding to Dallas, USA. „In the last week, we have landed a contract in the US with our new subsidiary“, general managers Hilke and Meyer report. Unlike in Europe, projects that are financed by governmental funds have to have a certain value added in the country. Hence, the company from Mühlhausen has now set up the subsidiary for these projects. Tax office, lawyer and managing director are found - the new subsidiary is named S&S Train Parts LLC and has its headquarters in Dallas, Texas.

Still most of the production is handled at the Mühlhausen site. After production in Germany, the different articles are transported to the United States and finalized there. Painting, final mounting and welding are planned in the USA. According to Meyer’s estimation, this will massively enhance the already existing market position in the states.

At the moment huge railway projects are tendered in America – most recently a high-speed train for the route between Las Vegas and Los Angeles was planned, Meyer reported.

The won basis order comprises, according to S&S‘ general management, 79 machine room doors for locomotives. In the upcoming months, it is essential to further expand the American network. The accounting in US dollar will now be significantly easier, as well as the communication in the technical area with completely prepared documents in English. A young man who moved from Texas to Germany in order to start his training in the company’s engineering department also demonstrates the well-functioning connection between America and Mühlhausen.

Some days ago, Thomas Kemmerich, the Thuringian candidate for German Party FDP visited the company.

The company’s problems and concerns are, as for many other medium-sized companies in the region, regarding the increasing bureaucracy that is to some extends no longer comprehensible. „We would actually need additional staff to work in depth on the topic of sustainability - the official requirements have become enormous. “, the S&S management stated. In order to be accepted into a support program, nowadays an external service provider would be needed. During the regular daily business, it is simply impossible to handle the different application procedures. Additionally, there is no straight line and no security for planning

„Our entire Supply Chain Due Diligence Act with its verifications leads to an enormous price increase of our products and a significant deterioration of our competitiveness on the market“, says Kemmerich. This topic has to be addressed immediately. From Kemmerich’s point of view the data protection officer could be deleted completely. Kemmerich calls this issue „mere German mind game“. If it would be deleted, it would not breach European law. „That is where we need to arrive“, the politician said. The reduction of bureaucracy must be tackled as the noose of bureaucracy around the neck of medium-sized companies tightens more and more. However, it is also clear that this is not an overnight change.

(Source: Extract from Thüringer Allgemeine dated 22.08.2024)