Paul Scholten, Stemmer Imaging – Bild: Stemmer Imaging AG
inVISION: Stemmer Imaging has been quite for a long time, why?
Paul Scholten: Stemmer Imaging has not been communicating well about what we have been doing over the last couple of years, and perhaps we have been focusing more internally than externally. Stemmer Imaging has been a private company and decided to go to the stock market. Usually when you do this, management focuses heavily on shareholder activities, investments, etc., whilst still building on the expertise and knowhow that Stemmer Imaging had in the past and has today.
inVISION: Where will Stemmer Imaging become more active in the future?
Today you need to be present, and it’s not only online, it’s also the outside world. Over the last couple of years, we have not been visible enough at exhibitions and customer events. There are several areas where we have reflected over the last couple of months, and where we believe that we need to play a much stronger role.
One of these is our website. It should showcase our products and provide a comprehensive overview of the product categories we offer. Every supplier with whom we have a partnership should be proud of working with Stemmer Imaging. With the changing market conditions, we need a different online presence. So we have taken the decision to launch a new website by the end of this year. It will demonstrate that Stemmer Imaging is a distributor sourcing various components within the digital imaging world, and then creating solutions based on the technical expertise, experience and knowhow that we have.
The other aspect is that we have already demonstrated our expertise over the last couple of months. When you look at the exhibitions and events we attended – our events in Munich, fairs in Nuremberg (Fachpack), Spain, etc. – the feedback from customers and suppliers has been tremendous. We have analysed all the countries in Europe where we need to be present, and we have been incorporating input from the different sales organisations we have across Europe, ensuring that exhibitions and customer events in each country will be supported. This is also something we have changed: providing more resources and more opportunities for external engagement.
inVISION: Will Stemmer Imaging also be at Vision 2026 in Stuttgart?
Yes, with a great own booth. We are also hosting the European Machine Vision Association board meeting in November at our office in Munich. That’s also a sign that we are embracing this responsibility more actively and ensuring that we are visible to suppliers and customers. We are listening more to our customers and to our salespeople across the countries, making sure that we don’t miss any opportunities that are important for the future.
This includes specialties around cameras, lenses, illumination, and other product groups, but also certain vertical markets where we see significant changes occurring. Two of these are the defence and semicon industries. Stemmer Imaging is performing well in both verticals. We have formed dedicated task forces around them, ensuring that we have all the specialists and knowhow within a department that focuses entirely on these verticals.
inVISION: What other topics will you focus on in the future?
So far, there have been various markets that we follow and where we are quite strong. These will remain. However, our regional teams have extensive market knowledge and capabilities in their respective countries. What we’re doing now is consolidating this regional expertise at headquarters, coordinating a joint approach that leverages the specific market insights from across our regions.
inVISION: Will hyperspectral imaging also be a topic for Stemmer Imaging in the future?
It’s one of the topics we have been processing since years and is also part of our future success.
inVISION: Stemmer Imaging has significantly expanded its international activities in recent years, including to the US through numerous acquisitions. What are your future plans for international activities?
When you acquire companies, you need to examine processes and systems. When we look at this, we can see that the integration of the acquisitions has not been fully optimised. That’s unfortunate, and it’s something we are addressing now.
If you look at the US, we acquired Phase 1 17 months ago. One of the things we did several weeks ago was to rename the company Stemmer Imaging US. The reason is that we will transfer the knowhow and expertise – which nobody else in the industry possesses – and use it as a bridge into the US market.
The US comprises fifty states, and we have analysed this and determined that there are essentially six states where we need to establish a presence. To achieve this, we are deploying local personnel in the field. Customers are not simply buying a single product from a supplier; in most cases they are purchasing a solution, and this is something Stemmer Imaging excels at.
Furthermore, we have created a technical call centre in Europe where all our various experts are based. Everyone contributes their skills and expertise, and when anyone in the US or Europe needs specific expertise, knowhow or support, we can provide this through this centre. Additionally, we are deploying these experts to the US for specific periods to visit customers directly and support the local sales organisation with their expertise.
Our plan for the US over the next three to four years is for it to become larger than our entire European operation. We have had follow-up discussions with all our suppliers at CEO and senior level, and they are very positive about Stemmer Imaging. They are pleased that we are becoming more active externally. We are now far more visible to customers and suppliers.
inVISION: You also have activities in Mexico, mainly organised from Spain. Will this remain based in Spain, or will it be organised from the US in the future?
Local activities need to be managed locally in terms of order intake, accounting, bookkeeping, warehousing, etc. That doesn’t mean – especially given the language synergies – that we will discontinue all activities from Spain. This is one of the many benefits of being part of a private equity portfolio, because Middleground Capital has acquired many different companies in the US. The advantage is that these companies have warehouses in various locations, whether in Mexico, Brazil, or indeed in the US. This makes it easier for us to collaborate with these companies and utilise some of their facilities.
inVISION: What other trends do you currently see that Stemmer Imaging can already address or will address in the future?
We have not yet fully explored all the possibilities with our existing product range in cameras, lenses and lighting. These three categories together already represent more than eighty percent of our turnover. We need to dive deeper and look further. We need to have discussions with suppliers about additional products or potential new partnerships. Can we be part of these developments and can we secure those franchises? This is one aspect; the other is that there are market trends we have been somewhat hesitant to enter.
We are very well positioned for the mid-market segment, leveraging our expertise, and also for the high-end segment as well as complex, sophisticated applications where customers really need substantial support.
At the moment, Stemmer Imaging is not yet present in Asia, and we are having discussions with our customers where we say: if you want to expand to China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, India… we will follow you. This would enable us to be present not only in Europe and in the US and Latin American markets- we are already established in Mexico and Brazil – but we would also be present in Asia, becoming a truly worldwide company.
The interview is based on the inVISION podcast „5 Questions…“ with Paul Scholten. You can find the complete podcast episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on the inVISION homepage.
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