Rosskopf Stefan , TeamTechnik
Release Date: 2010-04-16
Transcription of the Interview with Stefan RosskopfManaging Director of TeamTechnik
You arrived at the company in 1998. The activities of the company must have changed a lot over time. TeamTechnik’s entry into the solar industry occurred during your time here. Why did you decide to join this company in the first place in 1998 and what was the company like at the time?
The company was mainly doing business in Germany with some business elsewhere in Europe. Our business volume was approximately 1/3 of what it is today and it was mainly concentrated on equipment making for the automotive industry. So we more or less transformed the company over the past ten to twelve years into an international company. We increased business volume significantly to approximately €80 million last year and in addition to the automotive activities we have established two new product lines. One is production equipment for medical devices, the other is production equipment for solar modules; solar module production being the newest one which we entered approximately five years ago.
Was that already on your schedule when you joined the company in 1998 or was it an opportunity that you developed later?
No, it was not on our schedule. Over the last four to five years solar has developed to the way that we know it now whereas ten years ago it was a much smaller niche where only the chemical processes that couldn’t be done were carried out by equipment or machinery, anything else, especially in the module production, was done manually. The trend towards really high yield automation has only come up in the last few years.
The other question you asked was how I came to join the company. TeamTechnik is a privately owned company that was set up in the mid 1970s; my father was one of the company founders. After finishing my studies I worked abroad for several years and at the end of the 1990s I faced the question of whether I wanted to do something else or work for this company. I took over in 1998 and my father retired in 2001.
So you had three years of transition in taking over this company. I can imagine that at thirty-one years old it was quite a challenge.
Yes, but we managed.
We saw on your CV that you spent four years in the United Kingdom working for a Bosch subsidiary. Deciding to come back to your family business must have been quite a decision. What was the opportunity that you saw for yourself here?
I saw the opportunity to continue the work that had been done up to then and also to be fully independent in everything that you do. Our family today holds 100% of the company’s share so we can basically take any direction we want as long as it is successful. This is the most challenging factor.
I can imagine that after 2001 when you make important strategic decisions they might be discussed at the dinner table with your father. What did he say when you wanted to enter the solar industry?
We have always been a very innovative company, always looking for new fields and industries where automation might be required. We have always investigated new technologies and new activities, but one of our long term strategic goals was always to reduce the share of the automotive business in the overall business volume. We were systematically looking for new business outside of the automotive industry. Therefore we decided to give the solar industry a try. At the time it was already apparent that there would be huge growth over the following few years so it was not too difficult a decision.
How difficult was it to actually enter the market? How big was the gap between the expertise and technology that you developed in the automotive industry and the requirements of your new customers in the solar industry?
The gap was considerable, but the timing was perfect, because at the time the market was still open. There weren’t many large players, so it was possible to enter the market and still learn and grow together with your customers who at the time also started to invest in automated equipment. Therefore it was possible to enter the market with a new product and new technology and grow together with our customers and to establish the market share which we have today. I think it would have been different if the industry had been more mature in the bigger picture. We had to learn a lot but also the whole industry was new and had to learn.
Of course over the past year and a half your customers in different industries have been affected by the economic crisis. I can imagine the automotive industry has changed its investment patterns. The solar industry here in Germany has been affected as many companies are moving their production to Asia. Now there is a nice selection in the industry going on. The industry is globalizing. What does that mean for your business? Are you forced now to internationalize your activities in the solar industries at a more rapid pace?
To a certain extent, yes; however, on the other hand we have been an international company with subsidiaries in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the US before we entered the solar business. But yes, the industry has both grown and shifted to Asia a lot faster and than we all expected. At the moment we’re seeing a development similar to what we saw with semiconductors ten or fifteen years ago. But the difference is that the developments are not taking place over ten years, they are occurring over three to five years, therefore, we have to adapt to it. We are planning a production location in China for our solar products, which is certainly a step we would not have thought of two years ago.
How do you see the role of Germany as a country within the solar industry in the longer term?
I think we are the nucleus of technological development in products as well as production. We can keep that position but the industry will not have as many players as it has had in the past. We can also take a position in production but I think we have to focus, concentrate, grow, and back it up financially considerably more than we are currently doing. Companies like SolarWorld are taking the right approach, they are certainly in a position to withstand the Asian competitors, already fully integrated with large capacity. In fact, they just announced that they will triple their capacities in Europe. It is all about economies of scale as far as technology, capacity, and financial potential. Therefore I think the big players will be able to keep their position and stay a step ahead technologically, but I don’t think companies with a few dozen megawatts will survive.
I can imagine that when you started to internationalise in the solar industry you initially followed existing German customers abroad to different markets. What does your customer portfolio look like today?
Today we are doing a lot of business in Asia with local Asian companies – China, Taiwan, and Korea. We are also doing business with local manufacturers in the NAFTA region. You are partially correct. We followed our German customers to the US. But now the challenge is to win over the customers where they are.
In addition to the fact that the Chinese government decided to stimulate the development of the domestic market for solar applications the business community has already been quite ambitious for several years which is affecting the market here in Germany as well. Many of these companies start with limited knowledge of solar technology and you can play an important role in enabling them to operate at a quality international standard of cost-competitiveness. Just installing the right production technology won’t do the trick. What is the role you can play in enabling Chinese companies to compete at the global level?
We can contribute with superior process technology combined with a high level of automation. The challenge is to have process technology which gives you high product quality integrated in high volume equipment. The key factor is to combine quality with quantity, which is what Teamtechnik can contribute.
Across many industries the Chinese are well known for their ability to produce in mass quantities and reach economies of scale. What are the lessons that you learned from going to China and dealing with the philosophies of mass production?
We have seen that they learned very quickly that employing thousands of people for solar modules is not the way forward. Although they have been doing this for quite some time, they realised in a short time – over the past year – that this is not what they need anymore for the next steps. If you are asking what we have learned, we were surprised by how quickly they are prepared to change existing practices to adapt to the new level of quality that is now required as they are really tackling the world market.
If we look at industry in general, we have heard several times this year from Peter Löscher of Siemens that state of the art technology is sold to China – that they don’t want second class technology anymore. What will be the role of China in the development of this market on your opportunities to innovate, invest in R&D, and take yourself to the next level?
Obviously it will be the most important market for us over the next few years. There will be no other region in the world where we think we can generate as much business for us as China. It will be the most important market for solar and if we are not successful there we will fail for this particular part of our business. It will be the decisive factor in whether or not we can succeed.
What are your strategic priorities to make sure that you succeed?
In 2010 we plan on setting up a production facility there. The first step is planning and the second step is engineering in order to be able to adapt to the local requirements even more so than now. So local presence, local production, local engineering.
Are you planning on spending a lot of time in China yourself over the coming years?
I am in the country three to four times a year. This will be the same case in the future, but I am not planning on learning the language just yet, or moving to China.
When you look into the future what will this country look like? As you said, gradually you have transformed from being a German company that operates in Europe into an international company as your markets globalize. What will the company look like five or ten years ahead? What is the longer term ambition?
The longer term ambition is written in our company vision in the picture on the wall of our offices. We will still be a privately owned company, which is very important for us, and we will still be very innovative. We entered solar four years ago and we are about to enter production technology for e-vehicles, such as the mass production of batteries. We are transforming our current automotive business – which is very much focused on power train transmission – into production technology needed for electric drives, energy storage, and batteries. We plan on entering a new business field every four to five years. Teamtechnik will have production facilities in China, Eastern Europe, and the US, and will constantly grow in the same way as it has done over the past twelve years. The basic company footprint has already been established; we already have subsidiaries in the most important markets which we will grow. Finally in terms of a new trend I foresee, I imagine we will transform this company increasingly into a think tank here in Germany, carrying out the actual realisation of technological equipment in the local subsidiaries.
You mentioned e-vehicles. That is a market in which the Chinese government announced earlier this year that they want to be a world leader in. It is a market that is undefined as to who will take the lead. Where do you see the biggest opportunities for you in this market? Do you see the company going with your traditional German customers or making an immediate leap in China?
This is exactly the reason why we have decided to go for local production of equipment with machines for solar modules. There will be a link between photovoltaic (PV) technology and energy storage in the vehicle. Bosch, for example, has already announced its strategic goals related to this. BYD is one of our customers in this; they will get equipment from us for solar module production, but they are a particularly interesting customer because they are already making cars to investigate electric vehicles. We can work with these kinds of customers in e-drive as well as in PV. This is the same as what Bosch is doing; they have the vehicle technology and by investing in solar as they have done lately they are actually buying the PV technology to combine in the vehicles. This is also what we want to establish, having already made production technology for PV as well as for e-drives and batteries. We want to provide our customers with the full scale of technology from energy generation to energy consumption in the vehicle.
If we would have conducted an interview with you eleven years ago and asked “how would you feel about being involved in PV and electric cars and operating in China in ten years” would you have thought of that as a crazy idea?
Yes, nobody at that time could imagine how quickly China has moved into the position where they are now. I probably would have said that you were crazy.
| Company: | TeamTechnik |
| Position: | Managing Director |
| Country: | Germany |