The Netstal brand is set to return to North America with the opening of a new subsidiary, Netstal Inc.
Netstal’s previous subsidiary in the US was consolidated by parent company KraussMaffei in 2012, re-locating from its site in Devens, MA, to Florence, KY, over to where KraussMaffei’s US operations have been based since 1986.
In 2019, KraussMaffei announced that all remaining Netstal operations were to be combined under the KM brand. However, two years later the group spun its ‘KraussMaffei High Performance AG’ brand back out to the Netstal name, citing customer preference as the driver for the move.
The new Netstal subsidiary is based in Hebron KY, a stone’s throw from its parent company.
Doug Haberman will lead Netstal Inc. as president. He will report to Renzo Davatz, CEO of Netstal, and a member of the executive committee of KraussMaffei Group.
Netstal Inc., officially moved into its new HQ in the beginning of March.
Haberman brings 30 years of experience from the plastics industry. He held previous positions with both machinery and materials suppliers.
Between 1996 and 2007, he held various positions in injection moulding machine sales at KraussMaffei Corporation. Since 2007, Doug Haberman has held several leadership positions at Audia Group of Companies, a compounding and colour masterbatch company.
Most recently, he managed Audia's European business from Slovakia. For his new role as president of Netstal Inc, Doug Haberman is returning to his native US.
“Strong customer relationships and application expertise are key components of the culture we want to build. I believe in leading from the front, and my first objective is get out and meet as many of our customers in person as possible.
“It is exciting to be part of re-launching the brand that is synonymous with high-speed moulding. As processors are faced with maximising output per square foot and more importantly per employee, I believe Netstal’s machinery and systems capabilities are well positioned for growth as the calculations clearly show how we can maximise our customers return on invested capital.
“While we will focus on packaging and health care markets, any real high-volume application is a potential Netstal customer”, said Haberman.
Renzo Davatz, CEO of Netstal and member of the executive committee of the KraussMaffei Group, said: “I am very pleased to welcome Doug Haberman as our president for the North American organisation of Netstal. Doug’s clear focus on our customers combined with a team-oriented winner mentality will be important elements for future growth in the US and Canada as one of Netstal’s core markets.
“Our product portfolio, for instance the ELIOS range for thin-walled packaging and the new PET-LINE with side-entry, is tailor made for this market. Together with our U.S. team we can and will make the difference in creating best solutions for our customers' specific applications.”
The new North American headquarters in Hebron will serve as administrative hub for the United States and Canada. “Beyond warehousing our growing spare parts inventory, this location will also have a machine demonstration area and a separate space to refurbish machines in the future.
“Netstal’s field-based service, applications development, and sales team remains solely focused on helping our customers to fully realise the advantages of the Netstal technology”, said Haberman.
“The Netstal Inc. team currently consists of 24 employees. “We can’t stop there and are already recruiting both sales and field service talent to further expand our business”, Haberman added.