When Moritz Kurt Juchheim founded his company in 1948, he had a fairly clear idea to which customers in which industries he wanted to sell his products. The company, which at that time operated under the name M. K. JUCHHEIM, began as a startup with 6 employees on a manufacturing area of 350 m2 where glass and glass contact thermometers were manufactured.
From the very beginning, Moritz Kurt Juchheim focused on high-quality devices and the best possible customer service. The sales market at that time was enormous: the various branches of industry in West Germany and the Federal Republic, which was founded one year later, needed JUMO products to get the economy running again after the war.
At that time, JUMO products were also offered in the very first catalogs and at trade fairs where they were arranged according to customer target group. The customer knew what he/she needed and could choose the right components. With the introduction of computers (and later IT and SAP) electronic customer numbers were assigned an industry number at an early stage. This provided an advertising approach to the respective target group.
However, with the complexity of the products and the expansion of the markets abroad, the need to define the product functions and the application areas more clearly as well as make them accessible to other interested parties also increased. The JUMO developers had to deal more and more with the customers' applications to offer the products specifically.
Technical knowledge in industry applications had be gradually developed in greater depth at JUMO. A change set in, which resulted in the first "industry experts" being appointed just over 20 years ago. These had the additional task of observing the various industries for "their product families" and picking up impulses for new developments.
JUMO took the next step towards professional industry processing with the deployment of its first full-time market segment managers in the early 2000s for the food and pharmaceutical industry as well as for water and wastewater. They achieved strong, resilient results right from the start.
It quickly became clear that the customer expected more and more application expertise from the component suppliers as well. Consequently, the "Global Market Segment Management" department was established in 2015 and 9 industry managers were appointed. The playing field they found was large, very large – and lucrative: after all, JUMO products were and are ideal for all industrial application areas.
From the broad spectrum of industries to be served, those that were selected had the highest global relevance for JUMO to achieve sustainable, strong growth. The key industries at JUMO: water/wastewater/environment, food and beverage, transportation, thermal processing technology, HVAC, heat meters, distribution, safety, and renewable energies and hydrogen.
JUMO could expect above-average growth in these industrial sectors. In addition, product developments and expertise in these industries have been increasingly expanded for years. The market segment managers have also been very active on behalf of JUMO in the specialist bodies of the technical associations as well as approval and testing agencies.
"As a consequence they got involved in shaping the rules, standards, and laws," explains Matthias Kremer, Head of Global Market Segment Management at JUMO in Fulda. This is important so that a product quickly receives the appropriate approval and can take off on the market.
JUMO products could always be used in many industries, as a result of which the company's portfolio is diversified in a healthy manner. This JUMO strength throughout its now 75-year history has given the General Partners a sense of security throughout the years. "Consequently, the regularly reoccurring economic downturns do not pose a risk to the company," Kremer emphasizes. The area of customer-specific developments and production will remain a vital pillar. "These specific customer solutions are becoming increasingly relevant. We are currently transforming ourselves from a component manufacturer to a system and solution provider," says Kremer. The processing of special customer solutions is always rewarding for the creativity of the developers, product managers, and market segment managers. Operational blindness is avoided.
"Industry thinking leads" is now a motto in all departments of the company. "Only if everyone is on board will the alignment take hold in the key industries and lead to stronger-than-usual market growth," Kremer emphasizes.
The international subsidiaries have now also discovered industry thinking for themselves. To meet the needs of local markets, they usually also work on one or the other "country industry". This, too, protects the successful existing business in the countries but at the same time still allows the consistent orientation of the corporate group.
