INTERVIEW ZENTAURON
ZENTAURON is popular with the regular German Army (Bundeswehr) and Police. They also produce some civilian outdoor gear. Situated in Northern Germany they are a growing company producing all their gear locally, „Made in Germany“.
SPARTANAT: Paul, Zentauron has produced tactical equipment for several years. For which customers are your products intended?
ZENTAURON: We build mostly tactical gear for military and police as well as in the field of tactical emergency medicine and special rescue services such as high-altitude rescue or for the offshore industries, but we have become more and more robust for the outdoor sector since it has its fans.
SPARTANAT: How did you get into producing equipment???
ZENTAURON: Since I’ve had interest for bags and backpacks in particular since my childhood, it was obvious to me that this is we here I was headed. At 12 years of age, I sewed my first bag out of a green sheet; then my mother bought me a sewing machine and on it went. During my military service I made some modifications to my equipment and that of my comrades. Initially, the sewing was only a hobby and in various forums my work found more and more attention, so I decided to try it in order to abandon my initial livelihood. Luckily, I found Adrian was mad enough to support me and to realize this dream with me. It began with a sewing machine in my basement where I developed and produced the gear and Adrian ran the sales and storefront. Today, after 6 years, there are 20 industrial sewing machines and 12 employees who help us manufacture all our products.
SPARTANAT: You have a large customer in the Bundeswehr, but also to the police. What are the most sought after Zentauron products???
ZENTAURON: In relation to the government, we are participating in the tender process where we have only limited influence on issued equipment. But, there are often special products that are not manufactured in very large quantities from us. The large part are customers who want to equip themselves well for their service with protective vests, backpacks and plate carriers as well as small belt pouches from us and our trading partners . In addition, there are services in prototyping and production of product lines for other brands.
SPARTANAT: Many international companies produce gear and are serving the German market. How is it to operate as a German company???
ZENTAURON: I think the German market is very difficult. The requirements in the relevant local sector are very high and decisions such as innovation need a lot of time considering the many isolated applications and regulations of the police and military. Here we have the advantage of being able to keep the lines short and to work together with the customer on projects and quickly get them into their hands without the need to cross language barriers and national borders.
SPARTANAT: Production costs are very high in Germany. Why have you ever considered producing in neighboring countries or Asia?
ZENTAURON: I do not think that we can maintain this forever. There are essentially two reasons which I see: capacities in Germany are very limited, and there are not enough young people in the textile sector. The first reason is why my partner and I have made us want to offer as much product value as possible in our country. We want to live in a functioning state and I also want my kids have opportunity. The main components of our products even here are from our region, where the straps come from Gütersloh and the Cordura from Bielefeld. We can’t locally source all of our materials, unfortunately that does not work, but we will try as much as possible.
The second reason is purely economic. We have – if we add all colors, sizes and colors – around 3700 products which we produce here locally. Often in quantities of less than 500. This product variety requires a highly flexible production and just isn’t possible even in neighboring because the logistics would simply be too complex.
One can also imagine that we can not keep all of these products in stock , and of course Murphy’s Law dictates what will be ordered is always what we don’t have in stock . Nevertheless, we try to provide the products always just in time to the customer. With the move to our new location, we have doubled the warehouse space and try to gradually deliver a larger part of the orders „from stock“.
SPARTANAT: A special message to your customers???
ZENTAURON: Yes, I want to thank those who accompanied us on our way with words and deeds, forbearance and pressure. Our success is only possible because of our customers, partners and supporters.
Website: www.zentauron.de
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Zentauron
SPARTANAT: www.spartanat.com
