Seamless Progression - Sven Nieper new CEO of WAFIOS Umformtechnik

Ullrich Walther (63), who has worked for the WAFIOS Umformtechnik company for 45 years, will step back from active management on January 1, 2012, but will remain at the disposal of our customers in the capacity of a "special sales representative". The career of Ullrich Walther is a prime example of what constitutes the success of German industrial companies. Just like many other prominent business leaders he learned his trade "from scratch". He began as an apprentice at the predecessor company of WAFIOS and added to this qualification a Master of Engineering with further on the job studies. He later became as Managing Director, an authoritative figure and guarantor for global partners and customers. Through his continued commitment to the company, WAFIOS ensures a smooth transition in leadership. Sven Nieper (45), who has already been spokesman for the WAFIOS Umformtechnik for two years, will assume the current duties of Ullrich Walther. Alongside Sven Nieper, Jutta Leib continues to oversee the organizational and finance departments in her role as Managing Director at the Wuppertal-based engineering company.

The reason why WAFIOS has decided on this early transitional approach, of making a move in the right direction, can be explained by these facts given by the DIHK. It is known that at 80,000 medium-sized companies, a succession of leadership will be necessary within the next five years. In 20,000 cases, this succession has not been arranged yet. The result: valuable know-how in the economic location of Germany is lost forever and an estimated 23,000 jobs could be wiped out. This was a sufficient enough reason for WAFIOS to make the hand-over, in a professional, secure and harmonious way. Sven Nieper, who has a diploma in Business Sciences, previously worked in a leading position at the internationally active automotive companies HUGO BAUER GmbH and ESU GmbH, sees two major advantages in this smooth transition of a successor at WAFIOS: the continuity for the customers is maintained, and simultaneously his own initiated future strategy can be implemented. In an interview with Sven Nieper, he explained his plans for WAFIOS to us.
 

What new goals have you set for the company?

Nieper: "First and foremost, I would like to emphasize that we will maintain the basic values that have made us successful in the over 90-year history of our company. These are precision, quality, reliability, trust and punctuality. In addition, we must equip ourselves for global competition. We will stay ahead of our competitors, with innovation and customer satisfaction and further establish ourselves as a technological and market leader.
 

You attach great importance to innovation. Where do the new ideas come from?

Nieper: impulses come from the constant dialogue with our customers and our method of thinking. As a manager, who has been at the company for two years in business, I do not simply take things for granted. I believe that by keeping an impartial view and the seeing things from outside of the box, are good basic driving forces for innovation and improvement. This way of thinking applies not only for me but to our entire team. Examples of recent developments can be seen in our ability to upgrade emission-free, energy-efficient induction techniques for hot and warm forming, our highly economic machine concepts, as well as the attractive new design of our forming machines. We have made great progress in the reorganization of our customer-oriented business sectors. In addition to the engineering, die-manufacturing and service, we now offer an integrated tool development service. This way, our customers get everything from one source - a perfect combination. We know we are on the right track, because our customers are now rewarding our efforts with increased inquiries.
 

What are your plans for the near future?

Nieper: Our latest innovations, which go by the name of “The WAFIOS economic miracle” was shown at The WIRE 2012. That is all I want to reveal, for the time being. Generally speaking, we are active at all levels in organizing our international business, to enable us to tap into new markets and strengthen our research and development activities. You will see with me, an absolute seamless progression.