Berlin (Germany), December 13, 2017: Since November 2017, the Sales department at BEKUM has welcomed three new employees. Bill Duckham was appointed Sales Director and wants to create some new momentum. With 20 years of experience in blow moulding, Werner Pawlowski has been appointed Global Sales Manager for the automotive, large packaging and technical parts industries. Since September 2017, Stephan Gruber has supported the experienced sales team at BEKUM in Berlin as a Sales Engineer.

Michael Mehnert, CEO of BEKUM Maschinenfabriken: “The new employees represent the strategic expansion of BEKUM and also a generational change in Sales. With their excellent sales and industry knowledge, they will strengthen our sales department and dynamically complement the existing team of experienced employees.”

Change in demand and procurement in extrusion blow moulding systems
The new employees have come to BEKUM at a time when the business of extrusion blow moulding systems is changing. From a market perspective, the demands on process design and security, energy efficiency, automation and intelligent sensor technology of blow moulding systems aiming at generating additional value are increasing. BEKUM’s ambitious projects in the packaging, automotive and pharmaceutical market segments are real challenges for sales engineers with a high level of contract clarification and project planning. The new employees support their customers as a partner, in order to provide them with expert advice and to find optimal system solutions together with the processors.  

Short profile of Bill Duckham
Bill Duckham (born 1963) has many years of experience as a Sales Director in Capital Equipment, most recently for a large international packaging machine corporation. Bill Duckham: “I consciously chose BEKUM. The reasons for this were the positive strategic development of the company, short decision-making processes in a medium-sized family business and a great opportunity to actively shape and develop the sales department at BEKUM.” The native Englishman studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Manchester (UK). Duckham has a very strong technical background: Duckham’s professional career includes milestones as a technical lead which further led him to sales management. 

Short profile of Werner Pawlowski
Werner Pawlowski (born 1964) can look back on over 20 years of experience in extrusion blow moulding technology. In the past he had already worked on projects and in sales for BEKUM as well as for a well-known competitor in the automotive branch. After other leading sales endeavours, Werner Pawlowski has now “returned home” to BEKUM. As Global Sales Manager, he will assume responsibility for the automotive, large packaging and technical parts industries. In addition to acquiring new customers and new projects, Werner Pawlowski will also contribute to the implementation of new machine and production concepts with his extensive expertise and his significant network in the blow moulding industry. Michael Mehnert, CEO of BEKUM Maschinenfabriken: “With the complex tasks at hand in the automotive and technical application fields, Werner Pawlowski’s many years of experience will be a key asset. We are glad that he has chosen BEKUM again.”

Short profile of Stephan Gruber
Since September, Stephan Gruber (born 1986) has been working as a Sales Engineer for BEKUM in Berlin. As a graduate engineer from RWTH Aachen University, he supports customers in project development and the procurement of application-specific extrusion blow moulding systems. Stephan Gruber also embodies the generational change at BEKUM. He will initially go through a six-month in-house training programme to ensure that the long-standing years of blow moulding know-how will be safeguarded with the next generation of sales staff.

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BEKUM at NPE 2018, Chicago (USA): West Hall, Booth W2127

Captions:

Caption 1 (opening image): Bill Duckham, new Sales Director at BEKUM: “I consciously chose BEKUM. The reasons for this were the positive strategic development of the company, short decision-making processes in a medium-sized family business and a great opportunity to actively shape and develop the Sales department at BEKUM.”

Caption 2: Werner Pawlowski, new Global Sales Manager at BEKUM for the automotive, large packaging and technical parts industries

Caption 3: Stephan Gruber, new Sales Engineer at BEKUM

Image sources: All images are from BEKUM (unless otherwise indicated)

About BEKUM  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Pioneer and Trendsetter in Blow Moulding Technology
Founded in Berlin in 1959, BEKUM Maschinenfabriken GmbH is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of extrusion blow moulding machines.

Founder Gottfried Mehnert conceived the name BEKUM as the acronym (Berliner Kunststoff Maschinen).

The company began to flourish in its founding year with the development of the world’s first neck-rim calibration. Numerous innovations and patents followed, confirming that BEKUM, with its innovative and customer-oriented machinery solutions, has always been ahead of its time – and remains so to this day.

When innovative and economical machinery solutions with high productivity for individual packaging requirements of hollow packaging are in demand, then BEKUM, with over 55 years of experience in blow-moulding technology, is the first choice worldwide. 

Product Range and Applications in Food and Non-food
With future-oriented and reliable production processes and fully electric, as well as hydraulic machinery for the commercial production of blow moulded containers ranging from 5 ml to 3000 l, BEKUM offers everything for plastic packaging from one source. 

Philosophy of the Company
Building and maintaining long-term relationships with market partners through future-oriented, predictable company policy determine the actions of the first and second generation of the family, represented by Michael Mehnert. This strategy ensures the jobs of dedicated and experienced staff. The preservation of traditional structures, an established network of partners and far-sighted adaptation to change form the basis for continuous development and inspiration for the company in the interest of partners, customers and employees.

Innovation and Technology
Process reliability, availability, efficiency and sophisticated design characterise the high standard of BEKUM production lines for blow moulding. BEKUM contributes the expertise that has grown based on these references, associated with various patents in blow moulding, to the fulfilment of every customer requirement.

The level of process design is key for process reliability, reproducibility, parts quality and cost-efficiency. A high-quality production line for extrusion blow moulding, consisting of machine, die and automation which is impressive in terms of speed, wear resistance, availability, process reliability and stability alike, is critical for return on investment (ROI) and the level of added value.

Facts and figures
With 16,000 machines delivered and installed worldwide - about half of them still in use - the BEKUM Group has achieved by far the largest production of blow moulding machines of any brand.

The BEKUM Group serves approximately 100 countries around the world directly or through representatives.

Today, 310 employees work for the BEKUM group worldwide at three locations in Europe and in the US (Berlin (Germany), Traismauer (Austria) und Williamston (USA)).