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The ideal match

By Jonas Bumbacher, Investment Director

Two companies make a good match: Kalt Maschinenbau and staedler automation. The successful progress of the integration since the merger in November 2021 proves that. Under the Group name ADVATON, the two innovative food production technology companies will chart a joint path to sustainable growth.

Automation is becoming more important in quality cheese production and robots are being used more in the process. Kalt and staedler have pooled the skills necessary to work with these trends, which makes them an ideal match.

Industrial logic

Kalt is positioned as the system provider for dairy technology within ADVATON, staedler specializes in the automation and steering of production processes with a focus on the foodstuff sector. The considerable reinvestment in the group by the previous staedler owners demonstrates their conviction in the industrial logic behind the merger.

Kalt used to rely on external partners for machine control systems. That is no longer the case thanks to the core competencies of staedler in robotics, control system technology, and process automation. Kalt can now present itself to the market as a full-range provider and increase its focus on automation solutions and interconnecting the entire production process. staedler in turn benefits from the decades of experience that Kalt offers in food processing machines and staedler can allocate a range of tasks to Kalt.

Individual, fast, competent, and displaying the latest system control technology – process and machine control by staedler.

The integration has started well

A meaningful merger of two companies is a highly demanding exercise. The geographical proximity of the two locations in Lütisburg and Henau greatly simplifies the process in this particular instance. The first step was to enlarge the group management team: Lukas Staedler, CEO of staedler, has also assumed leadership of the group, Thomas Fäh, CTO of staedler, has also been placed in charge of the Group's technology operations. This mix ensures that the best of both worlds can grow together.

A number of tasks were addressed during the first 100 days following the merger, some of which have already been implemented successfully. Processes have been adapted, competencies clustered, and the innovation pipeline merged. As a result, staedler is executing the full implementation of the system control for a new Kalt project and Kalt is producing the new drum cooker developed by staedler.

CEO Lukas Staedler (right) and CTO Thomas Fäh (left) have assumed the same roles at group level.

First joint appearance

The Anuga FoodTec exhibition in Cologne at the end of April will be a first highlight. A leading global trade fair for foodstuff production, it has significant input into international food and drink industry trends. ADVATON will present the group’s extended product range and broader skill-set to clients at the exhibition.

Further information at: www.advaton.com

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