INTERVIEW

WIRE: Mrs Kunz, first of all, I would like to congratulate you on the 60th anniversary of your family-run company!
Gabriella Kunz: Many thanks!
WIRE: The names Emil and Hans Kunz, OMD’s founders, don’t sound very Italian.
Gabriella Kunz: No, you’re right! My father Hans and my grandfather Emil were Swiss.
WIRE: From which part of Switzerland?
Gabriella Kunz: Schaffhausen.
WIRE: What inspires someone from Switzerland’s most northern canton to found a company beyond its southern border, in the little Italian town of Domaso?
Gabriella Kunz: This is where my grandfather previously spent his holidays – he cycled over the Alps to get here –, and he said to himself: “Why not work where I love to be?”
WIRE: How did the establishment of the company come about?
Gabriella Kunz: My grandfather was a passionate engineer and a highly gifted tinkerer, who was frequently asked to come up with special solutions to problems and often succeeded. One day, he was asked to develop a spring coiler for which he came up with a good solution. When the machine was ready, he loaded it onto his bicycle trailer and took it round to the recipient. The machine still exists today but is obviously no longer in operation. It worked so well that it was soon followed by others. Our machines attracted customers not only throughout Europe but also in the east and even in South America.
WIRE: How does a family-run business of a manageable size remain successful for so many decades? Do you have a secret recipe for success, a motto or a set of guidelines that have accompanied the firm through the decades?
Gabriella Kunz: We have just over 60 members of staff, which is indeed manageable. Yes, we do have a recipe for success but it is certainly no secret. Through all three generations we have always followed it and will continue to do so. All we do is listen to what our customers want!
WIRE: That was something of a rarity at a time – which continued well into the eighties – when machine tool makers generously spread their products about.
Gabriella Kunz: Exactly! But we operated in this way right from the start. This has been a major factor behind our success. Another was the quality of our products ...
WIRE: Swiss precision!
Gabriella Kunz: ... and a third factor was, of course, the ingenuity of my grandfather who had an incredible number of ideas many of which were patented. It was he, for example, who developed the first spring coiler capable of coiling springs both right and left which meant that two springs could be coiled at once.
WIRE: Now let’s move onto your current product range!
Gabriella Kunz: We construct spring end grinding machines for dry and wet grinding as well as for continuous and downfeed grinding. The maximum wire width amounts to 80mm; springs of this size are used, among others, for trains, aeroplanes and seismic buildings. A second product group includes our spring coilers for medium and large wire diameters, that is, 4 to 12mm. We also offer multi-formers for torsion and tension springs for wires with diameters from 0.4 to 12mm as well as coiling benches up to 30mm. Slightly different are the grinding machines for cast parts and cylinder blocks. We also offer special designs and automated solutions for all machinery groups.
WIRE: What kind of position do you hold on the world market?
Gabriella Kunz: We are the global market leader in grinding machinery and rank among the leading forces in coiling machines, above all, when it comes to heavy machinery for thick wires and machines with high precision requirements. We leave the simple things to others.
WIRE: How dependent are you on the health of the automotive industry?
Gabriella Kunz: Our machines go to spring makers who also supply the automotive industry. Thus the state of the automotive industry also has a bearing on our sales. However, this does not worry us as our customers are located in all the most important industrialised countries of the world. Our machines are also used to make springs for tracked vehicles, the aviation industry, medical technology, electronics and the arms industry.
WIRE: How do you react to downturns in economic activity?
Gabriella Kunz: (laughs) Downturns are no problem for us because we operate globally. If business is slow in one country, we immediately plunge into the next.
WIRE: Which are your most important markets?
Gabriella Kunz: Germany is clearly our most important market. This is followed by Italy, the other EU countries and eastern Europe. Outside Europe our key countries are North America, Brazil, Iran, Israel and the major industrialised countries of the Far East.
WIRE: What kind of reactions do you, as a female business partner, encounter in countries with a male-dominated culture – and here I do not mean Italy but let us say, Persia or Brazil?
Gabriella Kunz: (laughs again) In exactly the same way as they do in Germany. They all test me to see how technically minded I am. They do not take me seriously until I have proven my technical expertise. But I know all of our machines inside out. So I can answer all their questions.
WIRE: Do you have a technical education?
Gabriella Kunz: I actually studied economics but even as a small child I underwent fundamental technical training on my ingenious grandfather’s lap. And I still draw on this knowledge today.

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