The Hörmann Group is a leading industrial door manufacturer based in Germany with 16 distribution warehouses across Europe, Asia and North America.
Established in 1935, the family-run company employs more than 6,000 staff and is renowned for its quality and innovation in sectional, high-speed, double-action and fire sliding doors, strip curtains, rolling shutters and grilles. Specialising in loading bay technology, Hörmann also produces loading houses, and dock levellers, shelters and seals for the logistics industry.
The headquarters are based in Leicestershire, and over 80 individual sales locations in more than 30 countries, as well as hundreds of authorised dealers in over 35 additional countries.
WLN – As a leading supplier in the Doors and Curtains category, what has the last year been like for your business? How about for the rest of your sector?
2015 has been another successful year for Hörmann. Industry is continuing to pick up following the recession and we’ve seen a rise in demand for doors and curtains over the course of the year.
Businesses also seem to increasingly appreciate the value of a high-quality product and regular maintenance, which is good news for us all round.
WLN – What are your best-known products and services?
Hörmann manufactures a wide range of industrial doors and curtains, including fast-action doors, roller shutters, fire doors and more. In the logistics industry, we’re also well known for our loading bay equipment, which is installed in some of the busiest warehouses in the country.
More recently, we’ve also expanded our maintenance and repair packages. These are becoming increasingly popular with both property developers and end customers.
WLN – What makes you the first choice supplier in your field?
Hörmann is renowned in the industry for quality, so our products are well respected across the board. Further to that our prices are competitive and our industrial service packages are designed to offer customers the best value for money.
WLN – What changes have you made to your core offering in the last year?
During 2015 we’ve been working to enhance our lead times and service levels, so customers can be sure they are not only receiving the best product available but that their needs are met throughout the ordering process. With this in mind, Hörmann has made a number of key appointments, including Kevan Barker, who joined us earlier this year as Projects Installation Manager. Kevan leads a team of ten, supervising the on-site management of new door installation projects.
We have also taken the decision to amalgamate our domestic and industrial sales teams, so that quotations are now dealt with by the estimating department. This has helped to speed up timescales for quotations and order processing.
WLN – What new products and services have you introduced?
This year we’ve introduced a new range of rolling shutters, which was first unveiled at the Munich BAU show in January. The SB rolling shutter is designed for manual opening and closing, and features an innovative tension spring assembly, while the new DD rolling shutter includes a slimline direct drive operator that can be positioned to match any fitting situation. We’ve also added the DD S6 to this range. This door includes a highly-insulated Decotherm curtain and powerful FU operator that allows it to travel at up to 1.1 metres per second.
WLN – What industries are your customers in?
Hörmann has customers across almost all industries. With such a wide range of door and loading bay products, we serve the needs of multiple sectors. We’ve completed a number of significant projects this year with large retailers but we also supply to logistics businesses, agriculture, the emergency services and many more.
WLN – How do your products and services help customers become more efficient, greener or work safer?
As a business we’re always looking for ways to be greener, safer and more efficient, and we’re well aware that these areas are important for our customers as well. We’re continuing to invest in research and development to ensure our products benefit from the latest technological advancements, whether that brings a faster or more thermally efficient door, or a new safety feature.
Earlier this year we won the UKWA’s Environmental Award for our commitment to environmentally friendly products and processes. We’ve worked hard to reduce the carbon footprint of our Europe-wide operations and have also introduced Environmental Product Declarations for all our doors.
WLN – Can you tell us about some of your customers and the work you do for them?
In the logistics industry we work with some of the country’s biggest retailers, supplying doors and loading bay equipment for their warehouses and distribution centres. We also work with property developers such as Prologis to fit out both spec builds and more bespoke projects. These usually include flexible installations that can be adapted as the needs of the building’s occupants change.
For Prologis we also provide three-year service and maintenance packages. This benefits both the developer and occupant as it means equipment is kept in good working order, reducing the risk of breakdowns or serious malfunctions.
WLN – Is there a recent or current project that stands out as a showcase for your company? Can you tell us about it?
One of the most notable projects we’ve completed this year was for TNT in Swindon. Earlier this year the logistics company opened a new state-of-the-art £15m depot featuring 40 loading bays and more than 60 van bay doors, covering three sides of the building.
WLN – What were your company’s biggest achievements in the last 12 months?
2015 has been a successful year for Hörmann with sales steadily increasing for both our domestic and industrial products.
As a group we’ve recently opened the Hörmann Forum, a specialist training centre based at our headquarters in Steinhagen, Germany. Staff and dealers will be able to view our full product ranges at the centre, as well as attending valuable courses and seminars. We also continually invested in product development and have consequently been able to launch a number of new door ranges this year. These will all be available to view at the Forum.
We’re also very proud of our fundraising efforts this year. With the help of both employees and our wider dealer network, we’ve been able to raise £45,000 for our charity of the year, Alzheimer’s Society.
WLN – Are you currently investing in the business, taking on staff or going into new markets or countries? If so, how’s it going?
We are currently recruiting for a number of roles within the service and estimating teams and are always on the lookout for new talent. In terms of wider investment, we continue to support research and development, which has led to a number of new product launches this year.
WLN – What are you doing to bring on new talent and raise skill levels in your company?
This year we’ve launched an apprenticeship scheme for would-be engineers. This involves taking on young trainees who are studying at a local college and providing them with paid, hands-on experience within our operations department. We’re keen to support the local community, so this allows us to not only provide work but also help train the next generation.
WLN – What are the major issues facing the Doors and Curtains category as we go forward? How is your company addressing them?
Changing environmental regulations and efficiency pressures are issues that affect many of our customers, so we’re always keen to try and allay these wherever possible.
We’re very transparent in terms of the environmental impact of our doors and always provide Environmental Product Declarations, as well as investing in product development to ensure we stay ahead of new regulatory demands.
WLN – Will you be exhibiting at any major trade shows in the coming year?
We’ll be exhibiting at the 2016 IMHX show at the NEC in September. It’s a big event for the logistics industry, so it’s an important one for us. We’re working on full plans for the show but visitors will be able to find out about our full range of industrial door and loading bay products, as well as our flexible service packages.
WLN – What other big news from Hörmann can our readers look forward to reading in Warehouse and Logistics News in 2016?
We’ve recently completed some exciting projects that we’re looking forward to talking about in more detail next year. These include installations with major retailers that we’ve worked with previously, as well as whole new areas for the business.
We’re also looking to increase the number of small-scale installations we do in 2016. As such we’ll be investing in the projects department to ensure we’re equally equipped to deal with jobs of any size, whether a single door or big shed build.
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