In July 2018, Hartmut Siegel, formerly head of sales at Gerhard Schubert GmbH, is taking over the position of chief executive officer of Schubert North America in Charlotte succeeding the former managing director Fritz Kipfer. Hartmut Siegel looks back on close to 20 years of sales experience with Schubert GmbH. Martin Sauter, who also knows the group well through his time as Sales Manager at today's Schubert Packaging Systems GmbH (Schubert Group), is moving to Crailsheim as the new head of sales.

On 1 July 2018, Fritz Kipfer handed over management of Schubert North America to Hartmut Siegel. Fritz Kipfer has made a decisive contribution to the outstanding market success of the Schubert Group in the US and Canadian markets. Since 2001, the native of Switzerland has been developing the North American market for Schubert. In 2006, he took on the position of Chief Executive Officer for Schubert Packaging Automation in Canada, and in 2015 he took over the new Schubert North America headquarters in Charlotte. He is leaving the company at his own request after 17 years and relocating his home to Canada.

Hartmut Siegel, a highly experienced sales director, is taking over management of Schubert North America. He has been working for the Schubert Group since 2000. He joined the company as Sales Engineer and after two years, moved to the Birmingham (UK) office as Head of Sales. Over the past 13 years, as head of sales at the corporate headquarters in Crailsheim, he has significantly contributed to the successful growth of Gerhard Schubert GmbH. In his new role as chief executive officer of Schubert North America, the graduate in mechanical engineering is now responsible for expanding the most important growth market for the Schubert Group. “Together with our well-trained team at our three locations in Charlotte, Dallas and Mississauga (Canada), I am delighted to take on the challenge of driving forward the pursuit of our increasing market success in North America and to further expand our service," explains Hartmut Siegel. The US headquarters in Charlotte were recently equipped with a new training machine from the latest generation. Training for operators of Schubert systems is a key facet of Schubert’s service offering, with which the company ensures the highest level of production reliability over the entire lifecycle of the systems.

In June 2018, Martin Sauter succeeded Hartmut Siegel at headquarters in Crailsheim and is now responsible for the Gerhard Schubert GmbH sales team. Martin Sauter has many years of experience in the world of packaging. From 2000 to 2011, the trained wholesale and export merchant worked in sales at Schubert’s International Packaging Systems GmbH subsidiary, now Schubert Packaging Systems GmbH, and from 2005 to 2011 as sales manager. Most recently, Martin Sauter held various sales management positions with a well-known packaging machine manufacturer, including that of business development manager digitalization. “Digitalization is a key driver of business optimization potential,” says Martin Sauter. “A holistic approach to packaging processes, long-term partnerships with customers and suppliers, as well as a highly competent and motivated team are the keys to success.”

Both leaders will be working on bringing the many benefits of the new GRIPS.world digital platform to life for customers in their markets. With GRIPS.world, Schubert offers its customers a digital platform which will significantly improve service performance and plant availability. Manufacturers will greatly benefit from digital networking since it enables them to significantly increase the efficiency and availability of their production facilities. From now on, all TLM machines from Schubert are ready to connect to this digital platform on customer request. In the mid-term, it will open up new opportunities for preventive maintenance and communication with customers. The new Gateway GS ensures security during data exchange.