A serious fire in the administration building on 19th December had an influence on JENZ GmbH’s first quarter. The fire was caused by roofing work during construction of the reception hall. The affected administration building has now been demolished and the new construction, which was almost complete, had to be renovated at high cost.
The fire resulted in the largest damages in JENZ GmbH’s company history” reported Uwe Hempen-Hermeier, managing partner of JENZ GmbH. “However, we are extremely happy that there were no personal injuries and that we could restart our operations very quickly”. Despite the clear facts behind the fire, negotiations with the insurance company were quite tough. Agreement was only reached on 13 March. Planning for the reconstruction is now running at full speed, however.
For this reason the general manager assessed the results for the first quarter taking the specific conditions into consideration. “We haven’t quite reached our planned objectives, but we’ve managed to produce a good development after a difficult start in January” said Mr Hempen-Hermeier. Despite the more difficult economic background with its low oil prices, the negative consequence of the REL 2015 in addition to mild winters, the order levels have not been subject to a slump. The reason for this was especially the positive order trends from overseas European countries by the end of the quarter.
The new technical developments over the last few months also contributed to the positive development. With the BA 915 D biomass processor, JENZ has launched a machine for classical composting of garden waste and substrate preparation on the market. “The machine has been widely accepted. The specific product benefits are increasingly well-received on the market” according to Mr Hempen-Hermeier. The newly-designed maintenance access to the rotor, which is achieved by the conveyor belt swivelling to the side, were at the focus of the development.
JENZ is also extremely satisfied with the development of the new Cobra vehicles in the mobile chipper sector. The HGV chipper with its innovative rotating cab makes working with the chipper much easier for machine operators because they have a better overview.
Further developments in the HGV chipper sector are also currently in focus. In the main this affects the chipper trucks which, at JENZ, are understood to be vehicles on which the chipper is driven by the HGV motor and therefore do not need an add-on motor for the task. “We are paying special attention to an improved drivetrain to enable the customer to achieve more simple handling of the vehicle” revealed Mr Hempen-Hermeier. The company considers itself solidly and well-set up for the next few years with these developments.
