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15.07.2025
How do Bavarian SMEs implement the strategic approach of "customer centricity"?
In practical company portraits, we show how companies consistently place the customer at the center of their activities - including Keller & Kalmbach GmbH. This best practice shows how customer centricity contributes to entrepreneurial success.
Interview with Hans van der Velden: Customer centricity at Keller & Kalmbach
Keller & Kalmbach, founded in 1878, is a traditional family business based in Unterschleißheim near Munich. With around 1,000 employees, the company specializes in fastening and fixing technology as well as C-parts management.
Its services go far beyond traditional trading: Keller & Kalmbach develops customized solutions for automated material supply in sectors such as the automotive and commercial vehicle industry, mechanical and plant engineering and the railroad industry.
The company has to ensure the precise availability of more than one million industrial parts and articles. State-of-the-art technologies such as RFID, sensor technology and artificial intelligence are used for this. Intelligent staging and retrieval systems automatically detect material withdrawals and trigger subsequent deliveries. Electronic labels and smart goods issuing systems ensure transparency and cost control. Such solutions are always developed in close cooperation with customers.
Hans van der Velden has been CEO of the company since 2020 - with a clear focus on innovation and customer proximity.
What strategic goals have you set for your company?
Hans van der Velden: Our mission statement "You don't have to care - we do" sums up our holistic logistics approach: our customers shouldn't have to deal with C-parts procurement or logistics - we take care of that.
We focus on strong, reliable partnerships and ideally want to be involved as soon as the first ideas or challenges arise - for example when connecting components or developing new solutions. Together with our customers, we analyze requirements and develop tailor-made product solutions. Our strategic orientation follows the "outside-in" principle: we listen carefully to what our customers really need - and consistently align our actions accordingly. This results in innovative approaches in close cooperation - from the idea to implementation.
Our focus is not only on technical excellence, but also on our values. Under the motto "Fit, Fair, Friendly", we shape our daily interactions - both internally and externally:
- Fit stands for excellent solutions and products as well as our willingness to continuously develop ourselves further - for example in dealing with new technologies such as artificial intelligence.
- Fair describes our respectful and cooperative approach to customers, colleagues and suppliers.
- Friendly reminds us that the tone makes the music - even when it comes to difficult topics, we focus on respectful, constructive dialog.
Where do you involve customers in your day-to-day business?
Hans van der Velden: We pursue a consistently customer-centric approach - because real solutions are created through dialog. Personal exchange, especially at management level, gives us a deep understanding of our customers' challenges.
For many years, it has been a central concern of mine to actively shape this exchange. It has become clear time and again that many customers are not even aware of what we already do - even after many years of working with us. At the same time, they bring valuable ideas with them, but they don't always get to the right place internally. That's why I regularly seek direct discussions with the management of our key customers, walk through the plant with them and talk openly about industry trends, challenges and specific requirements. In this way, together we create the basis for solutions that offer real added value.
Open discussions at eye level are particularly valuable here - not with the aim of selling products, but to develop a real understanding of the potential of working together. Many customers appreciate precisely this approach: they don't see us as a traditional supplier, but as a partner who listens, thinks and provides impetus. We rely on trusting discussions, characterized by genuine partnership rather than sales pressure. This results in concrete ideas and quick solutions - when we communicate openly and listen actively, opportunities arise that would otherwise have remained unused.
From the development of new products to service improvements: Where and how do you involve your customers here?
Hans van der Velden: We pursue a co-creation approach in the innovation process - together with so-called "friendly customers", we develop new solutions directly from practical experience. These pilot customers test new technologies in real-life use and give us valuable feedback that flows directly into further development. One example of this is our new logistics platform "Logtopus®" for material supply, which is based on the specific information requirements of logistics managers. Our aim is to create solutions that offer real added value - and this is best achieved when we consider our customers' perspectives from the outset.
At the same time, we also promote innovation internally: we have developed our own app called "GeDANKEnblitz" - a play on the words "thought" "thank you" and "flash". The app enables all employees to spontaneously submit ideas or suggestions for improvement - whether for their own area of work or beyond. In this way, good ideas can be recorded directly and easily and followed up.
This creates a continuous stream of innovation - fed by impulses from outside and inside the company. To support this dynamic, we make targeted investments in digital technologies such as the cloud, AI and software-as-a-service. We rely on an agile approach: It is better to start early, learn together and improve iteratively than to work on the "perfect" solution in endless loops. This approach requires courage - and strengthens our culture of innovation as well as the partnership with our customers.
What role do existing customers play and what role do new customers play for your business?
Hans van der Velden: Existing and new customers are equally important to us. Our long-standing customers secure the foundation of our business and enable investments and innovations thanks to their stability. At the same time, there is often untapped potential in these partnerships - which we make visible and actively leverage through targeted exchanges, particularly at management level.
New customers, on the other hand, bring fresh impetus and give us access to new sectors and markets - as is currently the case in the area of security and defense. They challenge us, broaden our horizons and help us to open up new fields of learning.
Our aim is to provide all customers with holistic support - with a clear understanding of their challenges and a range of services that goes far beyond traditional C-parts management. Personal dialogue is crucial to recognizing potential, sharing knowledge and growing together.
What visions and plans do you have for the future of your company?
Hans van der Velden: Our vision is to actively shape the future - through openness, cooperation and digitalization. To achieve this, we are focusing on strategic alliances, including with market competitors, in order to make faster progress together. We make targeted investments in digitalization, artificial intelligence and cloud technologies and rely on partnerships with universities and start-ups to bring innovations to market faster.
Our aim is to offer digital solutions in addition to physical products - for example, AI-supported services such as our automated solution for processing order confirmations, which is already being used successfully. In the future, we are looking into providing such applications as software-as-a-service - possibly via our own spin-off. We anticipate a strong surge in digitalization over the next five to ten years - and want to play an active role in shaping it.
The basis for our digital orientation is a strategic vision developed together with the Fraunhofer Institute. It serves as a guideline for our employees and innovation projects. The focus is on sustainable growth, data-based services and a close alignment with the customer needs of tomorrow. "Fit, Fair, Friendly" - for us, this is not just a mission statement, but a practiced attitude and daily aspiration.
Interview for Bayern Innovativ, conducted by Anja Groß
Innovation Management at Bayern Innovativ GmbH, Nuremberg
on 12.06.2025
Successful in the market through customer centricity
We are convinced that companies with a clear focus on the customer are more successful in creating the optimal solution for their
target group. In our opinion, customer centricity is more than just an optimized process - the ideal "customer journey". It is a
company-wide attitude - the customer-centric mindset: We want to maximize added value for our customers. We
focus on long-term customer relationships. We place the "voice of the customer" at the center of everything we do.
As Innovation Management (TIM) at Bayern Innovativ, we show you the path to customer-centric innovation - using selected
company examples. In short portraits of Bavarian SMEs, we shed light on how customer centricity works in practice: from understanding
and defining customer needs to designing products, testing and obtaining feedback.
