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definitively the best one. There have been lots of doubts
and also confusion at our merger. But in the last two
years we as Group have done very good work in exchan-
ging with our customers. The result is something that we
can be proud of. They start realising that our products
have been consolidated in one company and con-
sequently are the best of best,’ says Paul White.
Ian Wilson, business unit director of Farrel UK, as well
comments positively on the customers’ opinion all over
the world: ‘In the beginning some customers felt a bit like
being at our mercy, but in the meantime they also see the
big possibilities that we can offer to them. For example,
real price advantages, a shorter delivery time and more
global know-how in terms of development as well as
higher flexibility. Another important factor certainly is that
now in total larger volumes can be handled. This com-
mon strength especially attracts the attention of our
investors. For this reason, there will soon be some new
machines for the production facility in Rochdale. And
even sceptical customers are now concentrating on the
long-term nature and sustainable reliability that the
merger of the Group is offering. Furthermore, the trans-
fer of the development has large advantages for us. The
engineers are now located here close to the production
facility and no longer in Ansonia.’
He personally sees the merger as being very successful,
even though his employees had to accept a lot of
changes. ‘I hope that their trust in the company was and
will be further strengthened by the common branding
and I am looking forward to the perfect supplementation
of the competences and the many new customer con-
tacts.’
Despite the merger Farrel Pomini (Ansonia, USA)
will further act as an individual brand, specialised in the
continuous mixers developed in 1960 especially for the
plastics industry. The brand name established itself in
the plastics market within the last decades.
‘Even sceptical customers are now con-
centrating on the long-term nature and
sustainable reliability that the merger of
the Group is offering.’
However, Paul White is aware of the consequences that
the merger caused in the beginning. ‘As HF and Farrel
have been competitors for so many years, there were
certainly some problems. And there is no doubt that we
have lost some of our business relations to our compet-
itor Kobelco and to others. If a customer is searching for
a new offer and two of the offers always came from HF
and Farrel, this will automatically bring others into play.
Further, we had a large advantage over the Farrel Group
as we are working together with the German parent
company already for a long time. It surely was a big chal-
lenge for some people to trust in this idea blindly. This
was definitively the case here in Topeka. I’ve tried to
make clear to my team that for the time being perhaps
this decision was not the best for our location, but that it
was the best for the whole Group. There’s only one cake
and it is human nature that we want to have as much as
we can from this cake. But the only thing that counts is
that in the end HF MIXING GROUP will get the whole
cake and we should work together for achieving this.’
Basis of the success of HF MIXING GROUP is an optimal
internal collaboration. However, of same importance is
our external image. In the end, it is only possible to reach
a sustainable extension of our solutions for a secure
future only with satisfied customers: ‘Customers see HF
MIXING GROUP as a high-end seller and technology
leader in the development of machines for the rubber
industry. And this is unbeaten. They understand that we
don’t always offer the most reasonable solution, but
