Wood & Panel

Oliver Kunzweiler

Oliver Kunzweiler

Oliver Kunzweiler, Director Central Marketing, Weinig Group, speaks to Apratim Ghoshal, editor-in-chief, Wood & Panel on their plans for Xylexpo 2020 and the Group’s presence in the Italian woodworking industry during Xylexpo International Press Conference held in February 18, 2020 in Milan, Italy.

woodandpaneleurope With Production 4.0 is getting spotlight in Xylexpo, how do you look at Xylexpo as a platform to promote production technology facility?
Oliver Kunzweiler: I think in general, 4.0 is a very important topic in the whole industry since years. For us, it is very important to bring this technology to the small and medium sized companies because we figure out that they are not so familiar with this kind of technology yet.
woodandpaneleurope How do you look at the Italian woodworking industry to promote Weinig innovation and how has been the response so far?
Oliver Kunzweiler: I think Italy is a very important market for us since years with some ups and downs, to be honest. But I think the economy is strong enough and have strengthened since last few years and we have to make a little differentiation between the large companies and medium companies. And, our focus will be on medium and small sized companies for the future.
woodandpaneleurope What can we expect from Weinig at Xylexpo?
Oliver Kunzweiler: Of course, we at Weinig always want to promote something new and special at the shows. I think it is very important to showcase our new Profimat series which is for moulding and profiling and it’s above our Cube and beyond our Powermat Series. We at Weinig are often known as a supplier of huge companies, for huge products but our focus must be and will be again on these medium and small sized companies.
woodandpaneleurope Is it a special strategy for Italian market or for all over Europe?
Oliver Kunzweiler: It’s especially for European market but it will be ideal for all over the world.
woodandpaneleurope How was 2019 and what is your focus in 2020?
Oliver Kunzweiler: 2019 started for us extremely good. We had the best first quarter ever in the history of LIGNA and LIGNA was, I would say, the best LIGNA ever! However, the economy has declined a little bit, especially when it comes to smaller machines because we see a reduction while on the other hand, so many big projects are still going on. This is what we expect for 2020, as well as projects will be still very important. Well for the standard products have seen light at the end of the tunnel at the beginning of the first quarter of this year. So, we are looking forward for a difficult year but not a tremendously difficult one.

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