Customer

The call of the forest

For a year now, ZG Raiffeisen Technik GmbH in Steinach, Germany has had a new Forestry Technology Centre. This opens up new possibilities for collaboration with manufacturers like Farmtech.

“We pretty much take care of any special customer need having to do with forestry.”

Ludwig Disch

The Forestry Technology Centre in Steinach is the only one of its kind in the ZG Raiffeisen farmers’ cooperative network. It was originally a privately-owned agricultural machine company at another site before being acquired in 1999. At the time, current Regional Manager Ludwig Disch ran the company as branch manager. “We started with a focus on forestry machinery and two employees, and built steadily from there,” he said. “Now we have 14 people who work in forestry technology.”

Education as the key factor

“Our employees are almost exclusively home-grown, former apprentices who stayed on with us,” Disch continued. “Right now we have two apprentices, and we also offer all of our employees further education options for individual skills development. We have zero fluctuation. All of our employees have remained loyal,” he said with pride. Planning for the new location started in 2008, followed by a long site search. “In 2014 we finally found one in the Steinach Commercial Park,” he says. “We opened our modern Forestry Technology Centre in April 2015.” It gives Ludwig Disch and his staff 7000 square metres in total, with 600 square metres workshop.

Regional emphasis

The location does almost all of its business with forestry machines. “This area has mostly small farms with a lot of privately owned forest parcels. Customers have come to look on us as real forestry machine specialists,” noted Disch. The company specializes in purpose-built forestry vehicles, tractor conversions with forestry protective gear, and installing cranes on chippers and tippers. “We pretty much take care of any special customer need having to do with forestry.”

New product, new possibilities

The company had already received repeated requests for a combination tipper and crane when it learned of the new Farmtech TDK1300F. “We had an urgent need for a tipper with a crane,” said sales consultant Matthias Disch. “We already had Farmtech products in our range, but this was our first encounter with a forestry product by them. It was a perfect fit for us, since we can put the cranes on ourselves,” he added.

Customer satisfaction

“We’re very happy with the TDK1300F. The machine turned out great,” said Ludwig Disch of the tipper’s build quality. “We don’t need to fear any comparison with competitors. Price is the only thing that matters for off-the-shelf products, but in this niche other factors are a lot more important. We’re a real problem-solver for customers, so price isn’t always the priority.”

A positive outlook

Ludwig Disch is optimistic about the future, and has ambitious goals. “We hope to get additional sites for forestry machines from ZG Raiffeisen, including outside the region. Ultimately, we want forestry machines to be on offer throughout ZG’s territory.” He also has big plans for Farmtech. “Thanks to their great public relations and campaigns, right now everybody is talking about Farmtech. That needs to continue.” He has clear ideas on how to go forward. “If we can link our two brands more closely, we can be even more successful in the future.”