The Korbacher lift manufacturers Hübschmann stands its ground against multinational corporations
Business with the rise
Korbach. The fact that in his business goes up and down is normal for Ralph Hübschmann. In fact, he earns money with - and even during the economic crisis. The 41-year-old mechanical engineer, is managing director of Hübschmann lifts GmbH & Co.KG, which belongs to him and his mother. In the second generation, says the medium of Korbach (Kreis Waldeck-Frankenberg), with 85 employees from competitors, Thyssen Krupp, Otis, Schindler and Kone hot and heave their customers worldwide through the floors.
Own manufacturing: Hübschmann provides up to a few purchased parts that lifts them yourself.
Since I was 16, I was regularly in the factory"
Hübschmann by contrast, remains predominantly in the country, exports play in the nine million euros, which transposed the company in 2009, a minor role. Private builders, housing companies, industries, hotels and restaurants are among the customers.
And that can be supplied individually: Up on doors and drive systems which are supplied to build the Korbacher completely lifts its own, the work begins in-house design department and ends with nationwide service.
Some 100 lifts per year under the name Hübschmann leave the factory. Add about the same number is on behalf of other manufacturers. There are passenger and freight elevators, lifts for hospitals, large enough for roll-away beds, panoramic glass elevators, which give passengers the feeling free to float in the air. Also helping the athletes Korbacher the rise: The lift at the ski jump at Willingen comes from its manufacturing.
His strength sees Hübschmann in special solutions away from the standardized modular systems. lifts will increase for new buildings make up the bulk of the business, but "the retrofitting of existing buildings," he says. When the material purchasing the Company feels the beat of the economy: raw materials, especially steel, accounts for up to 50 percent of the final price for a lift. Depends much on such a classic traction elevator that can accommodate eight people, a counterweight of a tonne of steel.
The economic crisis is mild handled basket Achern. Revenues fell by ten percent while, but the company remained in the black. Short-time work was avoided. The year 2010 is well underway, says Hübschmann, but the figures from 2008 with around ten million euros in sales they would not reach. The hard winter had a engineering business in part to put on ice.
"Since I was 16, I was regularly in the factory," says Hübschmann. When his father in 1998 in a plane crash, he worked for six years in operation. And aims to remain in family hands, he wants. His children are four and nine years old - his father is leading them through a workshop.