Worldwide: Switzerland

“Switzerland is a special market. Defined by high costs, a number of different cultural areas, and discerning customers, it presents companies with some quite unique challenges. At the same time, it offers huge opportunities, above all for those who consistently deliver quality, service and reliability", explains Uwe Ziesenhenne, who has been the managing director of the HANSA‑FLEX country organisation in Switzerland since 2016.

HANSA‑FLEX has been operating in Switzerland since 1993. What began at that time with a branch in Ittigen near Bern has developed over the years into a country-wide network. Today, 38 employees spread across five branches and 16 service vehicles work every day to provide a reliable service to customers throughout the country. “Customer-supplier relationships in Switzerland are based on a spirit of partnership, dialogue between equals and a long-term view; personal relationships truly matter here. Customer acquisition tends to take longer, therefore customer loyalty is higher than in neighbouring countries,” says Ziesenhenne, giving an insight into the peculiarities of the market. The main opportunities for HANSA‑FLEX in Switzerland lie in the repair and maintenance business, specifically mobile hydraulics services and traditional branch activities in equal measure. Even though hydraulic hose lines form our core business, the country organisation also places increased focus on industrial hoses, power packs and pneumatics as well as services such as major pipework projects, fluid service and training.

The Swiss economy is largely shaped by the services sector. Of most relevance to HANSA‑FLEX are the areas where these services depend on highly capable technology, functioning systems and reliable infrastructure. These areas include the machinery, metal and electrical sectors as well as the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, watchmaking and food production. Each industry has its own requirements, but the common denominator remains the same: systems must operate reliably, standstills need to be kept as short as possible.

This is particularly evident in public transport. Switzerland has extensive road and rail networks, and our customer base includes most transport system operators. Energy generation infrastructure, such as hydro-electric power plants, is one of the fields in which hydraulic solutions play a significant role. From there, the mountains are not far away. “Mountain railways, Alpine aerial and surface lifts, machinery and tourism infrastructure present further challenges of their own: short time windows for operations on site, difficult-to-access locations, and technology that must remain functional even under these special conditions,” says Ziesenhenne. This broad spectrum of activities adds variety to the work of the branches and demands a high degree of flexibility, experience and technical understanding from employees, who regularly attend professional development courses.

HANSA‑FLEX is represented in Switzerland not only by its own branches in Urtenen-Schönbühl (Bern), Regensdorf (Zürich), Muttenz (Basel), in Tessin in Lamone (Lugano) and in Romandy in Villars-Sainte-Croix (Lausanne). The hydraulics specialist also works closely with regional partners that operate their own hydraulics workshops or complement an existing factory, for example in the agricultural machinery field, by providing hydraulics services. “We supply our partners with materials for example, or we train their operatives to ensure they achieve HANSA‑FLEX quality standards, and we audit them regularly,” adds Ziesenhenne. The result is an extensive service network with 33 operating centres that reliably cover even the remote regions – a crucial advantage in the country with many geographical and infrastructural challenges.

“For us in Switzerland, service does not begin only after something stops working. It begins much earlier: with listening, thinking things through, reliable 24/7 reachability and the readiness to truly understand what each customer holds as special,” says Ziesenhenne, expressing the approach of the country organisation in a nutshell. The service technicians make modifications and adjustments, look carefully at each application, ask questions, recognise interdependencies and give recommendations, such as how to avoid system breakdowns in the future. Thus rapid assistance on site becomes a service that extends to much more than simply replacing hose lines.

Alpine mountain peaks, picturesque valleys and high plateaus, hundreds of lakes: nature lovers and outdoor sports enthusiasts certainly get their money’s worth in Switzerland. The diversity of the natural environment is matched in the three cultural and language areas. The national languages are German, French and Italian, to which can be added Romansh in the Graubünden Canton. “For us at HANSA‑FLEX, customer proximity is important, not only geographically, but also culturally and in the context of language,” explains Ziesenhenne. Therefore, our operating centres in all the regions have employees who are closely connected to their localities. At the same time, a multilingual back office coordinates activities and ensures the HANSA‑FLEX quality demanded by our customers is achieved everywhere across the country. “Even if the approaches adopted in projects reflect cultural diversity, there are no differences when it comes to quality, advice and reliability,” adds Ziesenhenne.