Could you briefly introduce Kurtz Ersa and describe how you have approached international expansion?
We are a family company that is nearly 250 years old, 247 years to be precise, now in its seventh generation. Ersa, which we acquired in 1993, is itself 105 years old. My personal mission over the past decades has been to lead the transition from a traditional distributor model toward a direct global presence. Since the early 1990s, we understood that to survive and grow, we had to be wherever our customers were.
Today, we have 1,650 employees and our own subsidiaries in the United States, China, Mexico, and India. China is a very important subsidiary with over 250 employees. Our 7 production sites allow us to have a global footprint.
What were the most formative decisions in your international development?
The most impactful decision was the move from selling through commercial partners to building our own production units. Opening our factory in Mexico and expanding in China, where we now have over 250 employees, were massive shifts in how we operate globally. But if you ask which success makes me most proud, I would say India without hesitation.
India had been a difficult market for us for a long time. Our managers did not want to go there, the complexity was daunting. I decided to restart the whole process from scratch. We did not build a five-year business plan. We simply said: it is time to move. We started small, and with Altios’s support we had the company set up in 90 days. From zero, we now have 24 people there and are planning a local production facility that will employ around 150. The difference was speed, and the willingness to follow local rules rather than imposing a German mindset.
What were the biggest difficulties you had to overcome?
My biggest challenge was never the core business, I know how to sell machines. The real difficulty was everything around it: accounting, taxation, and government regulations. In India, in Romania, in many of the markets we have entered, the administrative framework is completely different from Germany. This is where I truly learned the value of a partner like Altios who has specialists in these areas. I do not need them for the daily commercial workI need them to master the foundational rules of each country, so that we are not operating blind.
How do you practically manage geopolitical risks today?
It’s a key issue today and we manage it through regionalization. That is exactly why we are in Mexico, in Spain, and in China. When a market is large enough, we must be present there with our own team and our own production capacity.
You can only respond to global risks effectively by being local for local. We are even considering a second production site in Southeast Asia outside of China, specifically to diversify our footprint and reduce concentration risk.
What model do you believe will prevail for international expansion in the future?
I believe in organic growth with full ownership. I do not want a commercial partner with different interests, I want to own my factory. That said, you absolutely need a strong partner on your side for the structural foundations: accounting, legal, tax. To succeed, you must reach break-even quickly, ideally within 15 to 18 months. We achieve this by starting small but getting the right structure in place from day one. A well-structured beginning is what makes fast profitability possible.
How does the human factor play into your global model?
It is the most essential ingredient. I treat all our global employees at the same level, with the same respect, the same ownership, the same accountability. We give real autonomy to the regions. My manager in China is German, but he does not run the daily operations, he is there as a communication bridge while the local team runs the business. You have to listen to local teams and genuinely understand their needs.
In India, for example, we provide health insurance not just for the employee but for the extended family. If a grandmother falls ill, the employee needs to know his family is covered so he can focus on work. That is how you build real loyalty. And loyalty is what makes people stay, which is the foundation of a stable, high-performing international organisation.
You have to show the customer that your subsidiary is not an island or a satellite, but a core part of the company, where decision-makers are present on-site.
What three pieces of advice would you give to a CEO looking to accelerate internationally?
The first is to listen to your customers before you move. Talk to local clients already operating in the country. Ask for their honest sense of the market, the culture, the timing. That intelligence is irreplaceable.
The second is to find the right partner for the structural foundations. You need someone like Altios to handle the rules: accounting, legal, compliance. You have to listen to them and follow local requirements. This is not the exciting part of international expansion, but it is the part that determines whether everything else holds together.
The third is to invest personal time in the market, especially at the beginning. Not because you cannot trust your local team, but because your personal presence sends a signal to customers that you are committed, that this subsidiary is not an afterthought. I travel to India nine times a year. Showing up demonstrates that your local operation is a core part of the company, not a distant outpost, and that is what builds the trust that makes long-term business possible.
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