SWISS KRONO AG, one of the leading manufacturers of wood-based materials in Europe, has successfully completed the sale of a Bürkle coating line with the support of TBS Swiss. The 130-meter long and 14-meter wide facility was taken over by the door and panel producer Teverpan in Turkey – a successful project that TBS Swiss has fully convinced.

Founded in 1966, SWISS KRONO AG stands for quality wood-based materials "Made in Switzerland." The company's 410 employees manufacture a whole portfolio of quality products made from wood-based materials for indoor and outdoor use at the production site in Menznau in the Lucerne hinterland. These are distributed to customers in more than 90 countries.

Changes in the product portfolio provide the impetus

For a long time, one of the highest throughput stations in the production of SWISS KRONO was a large Bürkle coating line. The facility, installed in 2002, is approximately 130 meters long and 14 meters wide, and primarily coated laminate and back wall elements. On a large scale, as the output was about 12 to 14 million square meters annually.

Until a strategic realignment occurred: "Due to market changes, we made adjustments to our product range, discontinued the mentioned product lines, and took the coating line out of operation," reports Michael Knüsel, Technical Director at SWISS KRONO.

Large used equipment, small buyer market

A decommissioned facility like the Bürkle painting line naturally occupies a lot of production space and ties up valuable capital. Therefore, a timely sale seemed desirable. However, the search for a new owner proved to be complex: "Such large facilities are specialized solutions, the market is limited," explains Michael Knüsel. The sheer size of the facility, combined with demanding technology and high dismantling and transport costs, made the sale a real challenge.

Marco Rüegg from TBS Swiss was therefore entrusted with the sales project – a long-standing business partner of SWISS KRONO. Rüegg and his team took over the complete organization: from finding buyers to the technical and commercial processing, as well as dismantling, export, and administration. Successfully, a buyer was found in a short time – the Turkish company Teverpan, a producer of doors and MDF/HDF boards.

TBS Swiss creates an international win-win solution

The key to success lay in the trusting and professional collaboration of all parties involved. It was only through this that it became possible, for example, for the Turkish buyer side, mediated by Marco Rüegg, to send their own technicians to SWISS KRONO and have the facility dismantled there and rebuilt in Turkey.

Teverpan is now productively continuing the Bürkle painting line and benefits from modern manufacturing technology at an attractive investment price. "We are very satisfied with the entire project process and the handling by TBS Swiss and will primarily be painting thin MDF boards on the facility in the future," says Mahmut Tever, owner of Teverpan, contentedly.

A financially sensible solution was the sale for SWISS KRONO as well. This avoided a long-term unproductive area and the associated follow-up costs. This is thanks to the efficient and persistent implementation by TBS Swiss: "Especially since unforeseen difficulties also arose in the project – partly even triggered by our side," confirms Knüsel and emphasizes: "TBS has also masterfully overcome such hurdles and led the project to success."

Conclusion: gladly again!

The collaboration was described as excellent by SWISS KRONO. "The process and organization have convinced us sustainably. We would work with TBS Swiss again at any time," summarizes Knüsel. In fact, there are already more projects on the agenda that the partners will now tackle together.