February 2008
AFC-HOLCROFT OPENS BRANCH OFFICE IN EUROPE
AFC-Holcroft, one of the largest builders of industrial heat treating equipment in the world, is proud to announce the official opening of a branch office in Boncourt, Switzerland. The office will support sales and replacement parts activity for the European region of the world, including Russia. Currently, AFC-Holcroft has projects in Russia, Romania, Spain and Italy.
Marc Ruetsch will be responsible for all European activity, operating out of the new Swiss office. Ruetsch’s title is Director of European Operations.
Ruetsch, who holds degrees in both Metallurgy and Engineering, has held several management positions for other large European heat treat equipment suppliers throughout his 27 years in the heat treating industry. He had worked with AFC-Holcroft previously as a technology licensee.
William Disler, Vice President of Sales and Technology for AFC-Holcroft, explained the decision to open an office in Europe.
“The European markets, as well as other regions of the world, are critical to AFC-Holcroft to allow us to manage the peaks and valleys of our business more efficiently. With the U.S. dollar currently very weak against the Euro, the opportunity to manufacture equipment in North America and ship it to Europe is very promising”.
Disler continued, “Our Boncourt office will serve as a beachhead not only to support this current activity but to further expand and penetrate the European marketplace with our products. We will continue to make adjustments in our organization to support our global activity as we expand our footprint around the world.”
Following this economic trend, AFC-Holcroft recently finalized an important agreement with a major European heat treater to supply North American built batch equipment into several countries throughout Europe over the next few years. In addition, AFC-Holcroft’s UBQ (Universal Batch Quench) family of products has been re-engineered to minimize international shipping expense, to maximize global flexibility in the future.
AFC-Holcroft has more than 90 years of thermal processing experience. The company manufactures turnkey heat treating systems for applications including commercial heat treating, automotive, aerospace, tool and die, foundry and forging, gear manufacturing, fastener manufacturing, and the wire and cable industry.
AFC-Holcroft is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of heat treating furnaces. The company has a global reach, with organizations in the United States, China, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, India, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Romania and Japan, including manufacturing means in many of these countries.