The Hanau-based company SmartRep has become the exclusive distributor of placement platforms for small and medium-sized companies from the French SMD equipment manufacturer Europlacer. Adding a placement machine to the portfolio that meets the requirements of German SMD SMEs has long been a goal: "We know from our experience that German electronics manufacturers with their complex high-mix environments need flexible, versatile solutions. Brand name and a large installation base in Asia were important to us, but not decisive," says Andreas Keller, Managing Director of SmartRep, summarizing the search criteria. The company has now found a European partner in Europlacer - a hidden champion that itself comes from the SME sector and therefore understands the needs of the German SMD industry well.
The French company Europlacer has been manufacturing automated robot systems for SMEs for over 50 years and SMT systems for over 25 years. Europlacer has a particularly strong presence in its home country. With SmartRep, this should also succeed for the German market. The name stands for quality, precision and productivity, emphasizes John Perrotta, Executive Sales Officer of the Europlacer Group. This is due to the fact that the inserters are produced 100% in France and customer feedback is incorporated into product maintenance and development. "Every new product or accessory that we launch on the market is compatible with its predecessors and everything that follows. This saves our customers time, money and energy," says Perrotta.
"Europlacer is therefore also perfect for our SMEs," says Keller. Prior to the cooperation, the new partner and its production processes were closely scrutinized: "Whether for EMS or ODM manufacturers, whether high-mix low-volume or vice versa - Europlacer is technologically absolutely competitive." Rudolf Niebling, founder of SmartRep, also sees the following advantage: thanks to the short distances to France, the long-term support of the installed systems will work well in the Franco-German tandem.
