PRidE of PlaCE —Zug - V

report
v-zug
01
PRidE of
PlaCE
—Zug
Preface
It may not have the instant
global brand recognition
of some of its competitors
but white goods company
V-Zug is proving that
precision and attention
to detail go a long way –
benefits of the “Made
in Switzerland” tag.
writer
Steve Bloomfield
photographer
Nelly Rodriguez
To start with, some clichés. The train
from Zürich to Zug leaves on time. The
woman who sells Monocle our ticket
is fluent in three languages (at least).
Everything is precise, clean and works
perfectly. Everything is Swiss.
Clichés can be lazy, misleading or
offensive. But if you happen to be the ceo
of a Swiss white goods firm trying to break
into international markets, clichés can be
helpful. JürgWerner realised this two years
ago, when the company he runs, V-Zug,
made its first forays into Russia.The Russians admired the craftsmanship of its
washing machines, were impressed by the
technology behind its ovens and could not
fault the quality of its dishwashers. But
they were finding them hard to sell.
“Could you,” the Russians asked, “put
‘Made in Switzerland’ on the box?”
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issue 46 — 089
report
v-zug
Previous page
01 V-Zug washing
machines are built to
last 10 to 15 years
02 V-Zug lorries lined up
outside the logistics
building
This spread
01 CEO Jürg Werner
02 An engineer checks a
stack of glass oven
doors
03 Inside the logistics
building
04 Many of V-Zug's
engineers spend their
entire career with
the company
05 Factory floor
02
03
V-Zug started life almost a century ago as
a galvanising plant specialising in farming goods. Since then it has grown and
merged, expanded and experimented,
becoming Switzerland’s largest whitegoods company, claiming around 70 per
cent of the market. or to put it another
way, next time you go round to a Swiss
friend’s house and poke around in their
kitchen, the chances are there’ll be a
V-Zug product of some sort in there.
Everything is made at the company’s
headquarters in Zug, something which
Werner believes has helped it dominate
the premium end of the white-goods
market. “if you want to buy a Rolex you
wouldn’t buy it if it was made in China,”
Werner contends. “The same goes for a
combi steamer.” The headquarters is a
short drive from the lakeshore in the
town V-Zug is named after. Here, roughly
400,000 appliances are developed, tested
if you wanted a Rolex you
wouldn’t buy it if it was
made in China. The same
goes for a combi steamer
and produced each year. Steel coils,
sheets of metal and heavy equipment are
delivered every day by rail – the company’s private network leads straight to
the factory gates – while lorries line up at
the 18 docking stations to take out the
finished products.
an underground tunnel links the
manufacturing plant with the logistics
centre and, next door, a chF50m (€43m)
computerised storage centre has room
for 30,000 appliances waiting to be delivered. Some 35m high and 185m long, it
is serviced by robotic forklifts which
zigzag balletically from one pod to
another, moving the correct dishwasher
to the right delivery area. The company
relies on a potent combination of cuttingedge technology and old school knowledge. inside the factory itself, where
PHOTOGRAPHER: MARVIN ZILM
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“a Swiss would never believe the words
‘Swiss made’ were important,” admits
Werner, as he stands atop a platform
overlooking V-Zug’s busy manufacturing
plant. it was, though. Sales improved,
more countries – from Singapore to
australia – opened their doors, and now
every item loaded onto V-Zug’s fleet of
lorries and sent abroad has the words
“Swiss made” stamped on the front in
ferrari red. let’s make that Swiss red.
01 dishwasher
02 Heat-pump tumble dryer
03 Combi steamer
Claims to use less than a third of the water
used during washing up by hand. V-Zug
boasts it passes the fondue test – pans
covered in raclette come out spotless.
An energy-saving, delicates-protecting
tumble dryer. Uses heat-pump technology
to suck moisture out of clothes.
CEO Jürg Werner’s pride and joy. An oven
that supposedly senses how long the dish
needs to be cooked for. Also comes with
dozens of recipes pre-programmed.
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also used to good effect to create the next
generation of engineers, designers and
technicians. Switzerland still operates
an apprenticeship system, offering 16year-olds a four-year on-the-job training
scheme alongside their formal education.
it also helps to have a ceo that knows
the business inside out. Werner has been
with the company for 15 years, first as an
engineer in research and development,
and for the past two years as chief executive. as he tours the factory, he checks
on the sort of technical details that a boss
with a marketing or boardroom background alone would struggle with.
The attention to detail on display in
V-Zug’s factory is evident elsewhere in the
business. Most of the lorry drivers that
deliver products to customers are employed directly and take as much care and
attention to ensure it gets there in one
piece as the engineers on the factory floor
to do put it together in the first place.
a similar philosophy is taken with
V-Zug’s aftercare service.While most of its
rivals have either outsourced repairs or
spun it off into a separate company or
moved manufacturing to the Near of far
East, V-Zug has kept it in-house. for the
life of the warranty, any fault – however
minor – is fixed without charge by engineers. While undoubtedly a good deal for
the person with the faulty dishwasher (no
€60 call-out fees to dodgy plumbers who
tell you it’s an electrical problem), it also
helps the company in three important
ways: one, it puts more pressure on V-Zug
to get it right first time; two, it’s impressive
customer service; and three, it ensures that
Werner and his management team get an
idea of systemic faults quicker than its
around 250 people are employed, robotic
arms feed sheets of metal into computercontrolled stamping machines. But each
piece is meticulously inspected by an
engineer at the other end – invariably
someone with grey hair.
“This is top precision work,”Werner
says, nodding respectfully to the bluejacketed fifty-somethings analysing the
back of a tumble dryer that has just come
out of the other end of a large stamping
machine. “it needs people with very high
knowledge.” Special commendations are
handed out to employees who have been
with the company for 20 years – and
every five years after that. Each year
Werner finds himself giving out more
commendations, he says.
That experience is not just brought
to bear on the products V-Zug makes; it is
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090 — issue 46
issue 46 — 091
report
v-zug
01 Ovens in the Zug
showroom
02 Export director René
Fankhauser
03 Dishwashers destined
for Russia
04 Ready to go
01
02
rivals. “Most companies only hear about
problems when they become major. We
know from the start.”
There are, though, only so many
washing machines one can sell in a country of just under eight million, particularly if each appliance is expected to last
for 10 to 15 years.Which is why the need
for expansion abroad is so urgent.
internationally, the market is dominated by V-Zug’s German competitors:
Miele at the premium end, Bosch at the
low-cost end.The Bosches and the Electroluxes also have a global brand recognition that V-Zug – tiny in comparison –
could only dream of.
The company’s international plans
have only really begun to take shape over
the last two years – export sales count for
no more than 2 per cent of overall sales –
but as the experience with Russians
showed there is one strong card V-Zug
has to play when it travels abroad.
“The Swissness is a big advantage,”
says René fankhauser, the company’s
export director. “it conjures up emotions: security, the Swiss knife, punctual-
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ity. it says ‘Yes, you can rely on us’.”
Every single slogan V-Zug uses to sell its
products abroad focus on its nationality:
“Exclusive Swiss Precision since 1913”,
boasts one poster; “The Swiss Spirit of
invention”, proclaims another, while on
fankhauser’s business cards, it simply
states “Premium Swiss Quality”. The
white cross on the red background is
prominently displayed on every piece of
literature V-Zug produces.
it is not a strategy that would work in
other industries perhaps. To return
to those clichés, precision, punctuality and
perfection are exactly the qualities one
tends to look for in a washing machine –
or indeed in that other typically strong
Swiss industry, a bank. if V-Zug were a
theatre company it might not find its nationality such an impressive calling card.
V-Zug’s foreign adventures, though,
will sink or swim based on the quality of
its goods, something that Werner is well
aware of. “it has to be a package that fits
together – [the technology and the Swissness]. Swissness alone is not good enough,
but it helps.” — (M)
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