1. What is your role in GIT-Components and what is your pride from working in Klüber Lubrication?
Dr. Enekes: I am Head of Global Industry Team Components, part of a team of four people. Our function as GIT-C is to support our internal and external customers on commercial aspects related to several application groups. We started in January 2019 from scratch. This is something where I am personally very proud to be apart of a new and highly motivated team.
2. How can your team support the channel partners in South East Asia?
Dr. Enekes: We are working on a global perspective on so-called focus customers. As we have four market segments in GIT-C, we have a wide variety of application groups and customers. In SEA, many of these customers are producing as well. Nord Drivesystems, Grohe, Intag for Dyson are nice examples. I see our benefit for the channel partners that we bring in the global support regarding commercial aspects, approvals, sharing learnings on customers, access, influencing decisions in other regions etc. One example we see is the global tenders where we are aiming on getting a big share at Owens Illinois. We see ourselves being the link to all internal players like Application Engineering, and our colleagues in Pricing, logistics departments.
3. Do you anticipate any growth potential for the industries relating to Components in South East Asia?
Dr. Enekes: As many of you might know, we are focusing on specific application groups, such as gear OEMs oil and grease lubricated, sanitary valves and fittings, glass industry, electrical motors and switches and many other application groups. New-coming applications like optical, e-Bikes are on our radar too. I was in Bangkok some time ago and I saw that many customers are producing advanced components. So a clear yes!
4. How do Klüber Lubrication products contribute to the sustainability of electronic motors with rising global electricity consumption?
Dr. Enekes: Especially with regards to “New Mobility” efficiency requirements in terms of energy consumption are increasing tremendously and offer challenging requirements. With our newly developed electric motor bearing greases of the Klüberlectric series, we are able to achieve long component life. In addition, the risk of premature bearing failures due to electric erosion can be minimized. Also in the industrial sector, energy efficiency requirements, can be met with our Klüberlectric greases, featuring modern raw materials as well as state of the art production technology.
5. How does your team stay ahead using the Klüber technology while tackling lubricating solutions for valves and fittings, given the changing consumerism and rising middle-class consumption in Asia?
Dr. Enekes: We have good experience with this application in Europe. Here, we have a lot of different requirements such as regulations, requirements in operation which require a suitable chemistry. Our R&D and Application Engineering colleagues have a long experience starting from raw materials and the performance of our products for high-end taps of our customers. Our share in Grohe for instance is very high and so this understanding gives an advantage too. Beside this, it is also important to train our sales colleagues on product news and requirements. Currently, we are sharing our learnings of valves and fittings. Feel free to join.
6. In what ways can channel partners multiply success and create value for the end-users apart from value-selling?
Dr. Enekes: Especially with the OEM approvals we generated over the last years, e. g. food grade gear oils, or food grade chain lubricants which help our channel partners, to approach operators in food processing companies we offer tremendous opportunities. We are very happy to see our channel partners to be like market hunters, keep on staying curious and searching for new opportunities. We will support them as good as we all can to make the deal.
7. Which message do you want to send to our channel partners in South East Asia?
Dr. Enekes: On behalf of the GIT-C team, we are very happy to exchange with all of you as mentioned. We can then help influence decisions taken in the HQ of our customers. Therefore, we are happy if we get more information on the local needs, structure and application and so on.
Dr. Claus Enekes