Bekaert grows more by acquiring Deslee Clama

Hakan Ucar, Head of Product Management and Development of Bekaert Deslee Europe: “We have positioned ourselves at a different level from our competitors. We consider the entire world as our market.”

 Starting as a family business in 1892, there was a continuous growth ongoing. Finally, joining to the Haniel Group last year, Bekaert Textiles has been continuing its growth by acquiring Deslee Clama this year. Pointing out that they were currently the leader in the market Hakan Ucar, Head of Product Management and Development of BekaertDeslee Europe has recently furnished us with important information about the sector. He stated that being a big name in this industry necessitated becoming closer to the market adding that Bekaert has a production footprint around the globe for this reason. He responded the questions of Sleep Tech

 First of all what was the main reason of joining of Deslee Clama to Bekaert?

Originally, Bekaert started as a family business. However, already many years ago it was acquired by large industrial groups. In 1992, Bekaert joined the Dutch Gamma Holding and in 2010, the private equity funds Gilde & Parcom acquired the shares. The markets and countries where growth would be realized were determined by different researches. The method of doing this is becoming as much innovative and flexible as possible. We are operating in a sector of which margins are limited. This requires being as close as possible to the markets, because of logisticscosts, organizational advantagesand really understanding our customers. Time to Market is veryimportant that you have to offerright products to the market ontime with a reliable service.We saw these facts and ourgroup decided to increase ourinvestments. In line with this,Haniel Group, a German familyequity company and a.o. a majörpartner of Metro Group, was verymuch interested in the growthpossibilities of Bekaert Textilesand acquired all of the shares ofBekaert last year.The acquisition of DesleeClama infact fits within the execution of ourgrowth strategy. BekaertDesleeTextiles is uniquely positionedto deliver value in the comingyears through our unique globalfootprint with manufacturing in allmajor markets on all continents, acomprehensive product portfolioand an unmatched innovation capacity.The combined organizationis committed to invest heavily inunique designs and fabric constructions,operational excellenceand service.

What has been changed in theindustry following the merge ofBekaert and Deslee Clama?

Weare ahead of our competitors andhave a production network in19 countries. Currently, we havefactories in Europe in Romania,Spain, Turkey, Estonia, and Poland.We also have manufacturing operations in the Czech Republic. Both of our headquarters are in Belgium. Now we are consolidating both of our headquarters in one location physically.

How has this merging affected your position in the market?

We believe the Footprint is important. Obviously one of our goals was to improve our share in the market to a certain level. Before that it was essential for us to establish our sales&manufacturing organizations. Later on, we will take certain decisions based on our strong leadership position in the market. For us the entire world is our market. So, we need to make sure that we can supply our products at a global level. This is our core competitive advantage. Our customers draw us to be global because they became increasingly global. We anticipate larger customers will prefer working with larger supplier like. Smaller manufacturers on the other hand will be beneficial to the local industry, since they would have the capability to produce for certain types of demands faster than the larger producers. Every effective market has room for both small and large players. And we can be both at the same time.

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