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the higher number of trainees that have been taken on,
Paul White, site director from Topeka, Kansas, USA, is
first and foremost content with the growth of his own
location and its increasing stature: ‘For us, 2013 was a
year of transition, during which the entire North Ameri‑
can production of the rubber mixers was brought under
one roof in Topeka. The HF MIXING GROUP has invest‑
ed two and a half million US dollars in production and
expanding storage capacity at our location, and five
new employees have been taken on. That is very pleas-
ing and will increase our sales revenue and operating
result. This strategic decision allows us to pool our
strengths and serve our customers from one location –
from one single source, so to speak!’
The changeover to a shared brand image has also been
well received without exception among the business
unit and site directors: ‘I think our brand presence is
good and our values are solid and credible – and that is
very important. The values come across as very natural
and appear in no way contrived,’ says Ansonia chief
Paul Lloyd, full of praise. His colleague from Topeka
adds: ‘I admit that I initially had my doubts as to whether
the established brand presence actually had any value
or whether it was just some kind of marketing trick
which nobody really took seriously, but I soon came to
realise how important the brand presence is: our em-
ployees in Topeka are able to identify with the brand;
they feel part of the global HF MIXING GROUP family –
and that wasn’t necessarily the case previously. This
sentiment is gradually becoming the norm and per-
meating everyday working life.’ Their English colleague
Ian Wilson is also getting a number of positive things
out of the brand presence: ‘I see myself as part of the
HF MIXING GROUP – no longer as a Farrel employee.’
However, the elements of the brand presence per-
ceived as especially important by the individual loca-
tions and therefore increasingly communicated to the
employees are different: Rochdale and Ansonia primar-
ily rate brand values. ‘Our people at Farrel, Ansonia,
were actually always familiar with the brand values and
practiced them. Accordingly, it was just necessary for
us to reinforce their conviction once again and raise
awareness of the values by aiming to visually and
verbally strengthen the values,’ says Paul Lloyd. His
colleague from Topeka, Paul White, adds a further
point: ‘We actually use all the tools of the brand pres-
ence. It may sound a little arrogant now, but it seemed
to us as if the core message of the brand was already
being practiced in Topeka. We have had to fight for our
survival in Topeka a few times in the past and it is be-
cause of this fact that we know exactly what passion
means. It is the same with reliability: we simply have to
be a reliable partner to our customers to survive, other-
wise the HF MIXING GROUP wouldn’t exist in its cur-
rent form.’ Riccardo Curti’s favourite aspects of the
new brand image relate to ambition and passion:
‘Those are precisely the characteristics which we set as
standards in relation to our expertise and our jobs,’
says the Italian.
All business unit managers view a common awareness
of the brand across all locations as indispensable. Paul
White explains: ‘The biggest advantage that can grow
out of the brand strategy is undoubtedly the common
understanding of the brand, which always shines
through in the cooperation that exists between the indi-
vidual businesses and locations. Previously we tended
to have a “Me first!” mentality – it is completely different
now. We feel much more like a unit.’ The Briton Ian
Paul White, site director in Topeka, Kansas, USA.
Paul Lloyd,
business unit director at FARREL POMINI in Ansonia, Connecticut, USA.
