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Passion
5
BEYOND SURFACES
Spring
16
together two companies and making a
global technology leader out of two
coating specialists.
And have you been successful?
You can well imagine that I would like to
answer you with a simple “Yes” ! That is
unfortunately not (yet) possible – in any
event not without reservation, since
even after almost two years a task of
this sort is naturally not yet completed.
It is quite clear though that this
fusion of two coating pioneers has
created a global coating solution
technology leader: Balzers and Metco
cover the entire spectrum, ranging from
heat treatment, through thin film
coatings to thicker coatings, and are
active in more than 40 industries. Much
has also happened with respect to the
convergence of the two brands. I can
therefore say: Yes, we have been
successful: we are on the right track
and have already
posted many suc-
cesses.
How do these look in
concrete terms?
We are creating synergies at all levels.
This starts with small initiatives, though
we also have projects affecting nearly
every employee within the Segment.
Internally this means that important
functions have now been set up at the
Segment level, and work for both
brands. This has made these areas very
efficient and raised teamwork to an
entirely new level.
In this first issue of our new
customer magazine BEYOND
SURFACES we also present several
projects in which Balzers and Metco
teamwork is also apparent for our
customers, and from which they of
course profit. Our new BALINIT
CROMA and CROMA PLUS coatings
for example: originally developed by
Metco, these have been transferred to
Balzers systems and are thus now
globally available. Which means: we
now offer Balzers’ customers a new
coating family, and Metco customers
profit from a global service network,
through which the coatings are soon
globally available. In autumn we opened
the first joint factory in Guelph in
Canada, that in particular serves
customers from the automotive and
“As CEO I am proud that innovation
is one of the Surface Solutions
Segments’ success factors.
We are continuously
developing.”