Andy Sharpe
CEO Bühler North America
Bühler North America expands and strengthens its service network and offerings with the acquisition of Design Corrugating Companies, a leading roller mill and other equipment service company based in Taylorville, Illinois, US. With this move, Bühler now operates seven service centers in the US, serving grain, oilseed, feed, petfood, and chocolate processors, as well as brewers and distillers, inks and coatings and many others who utilize roller mills.
Design Corrugating is a leading provider of roller mill parts and services, including roll reconditioning, new rolls, and other equipment parts and services, with facilities in Taylorville, IL, Oakdale, CA, Wichita, KS and Chattanooga, TN. All Design Corrugating locations will become new Service Center sites in the Bühler Customer Service network, and the entire Design Corrugating staff has joined the Bühler team. Existing operations will continue unchanged, utilizing the "pick-up, repair and deliver" model. Bühler will continue to provide parts and services for all makes and models of roller mills.
Future investments are planned for equipment that will allow new services to be delivered, and the full Bühler supply chain will be leveraged to improve competitiveness in terms of cost and efficiency. Customers will also benefit from Bühler's deep process expertise as an Original Equipment Manufacturer, to deliver improved operational insights, along with the core services already provided.
"For us, this is only the starting point to develop the most comprehensive and value driving services in our industry," says Andy Sharpe, CEO, Bühler North America. "Today, the installed assets base of many companies is not running as optimally as it could be and consequently, they are wasting energy and raw material, and suffering quality and efficiency losses. We experienced that, with our services, we can achieve step change for customers especially when connecting companies to Bühler Insights, our digital platform, they can achieve the highest process transparency based on data."
"We are excited to now be part of the Bühler service network," states Brett Poland, General Manager, Design Corrugating, who has become a Bühler team member and continues to lead the former Design Corrugating locations. "The added resources and support that comes with joining the Bühler Team, will help us reach new levels of productivity, expand our service offerings and improve quality to all our existing and future customers," says Poland.
Digital connectivity, combined with local service centers and technical experts, will enable Bühler technicians to communicate and work on issues with plant operators in real time, using data and connected tools, such as BühlerVision, to deliver a much more proactive and responsive relationship, and maximize operational uptime and efficiency.
This acquisition represents the continuation of Bühler's investment strategy in North America, following the addition of the Food Application Center (FAC) in Minneapolis, acquisition of new service center locations in Perham, MN and Springdale, AR, and upgraded office, production and application center facilities in Cary, NC. With this, Bühler now operates 14 sales offices, four modern manufacturing facilities, 10 service centers, three application centers and two apprenticeship academies in North America. This infrastructure and a team of nearly 1,000 employees is laser focused on providing ever improving support to the North American market.