Industry Activities
by Gang Hao Chang, Fastener World Inc.
This year is the 38th anniversary for Värnamo, Sweden-headquartered Bufab Group (“Bufab”), which has 28 operations in 23 countries. In order to achieve more consolidated communication and collaboration with its Taiwanese suppliers, Bufab gave its first vendors meeting with the attendance of many important guests from Taiwanese fastener industry on Nov. 05, 2015 at the Grand Hi Lai Hotel in Kaohsiung.
As this event was significant to Bufab, President & CEO Jörgen Rosengren, COO Jesper Blomquist, Bufab Taiwan President Kelly Chen, Swedish Purchasing Manager Maria Götesson, Global Quality Manager Thomas Persson, and Asia Pacific Manager Mathias Torstensson all attended the meeting, showing their sincere welcome to the respected guests.
President & CEO Jörgen Rosengren said, “Bufab has been cooperating with Taiwanese suppliers for decades, but giving such a grand vendors meeting in Taiwan is our first time. I think the result is quite positive. We also invite our top 50 Taiwanese suppliers and important guests to come here to share the happiness of our success. We all know that Taiwanese suppliers can provide high quality products and efficient service.” He also added, “Every year Bufab has about 10% growth in operation and we’ll be also happy to share this growth with our suppliers if they can also become our long term business partners.”
Speaking of supplier chain strategy, COO Jesper Blomquist said, “Bufab purchases 80% of its volume from 8 major countries (e.g. Taiwan, China, Germany, France, etc.). Products Bufab purchases from Taiwan are mainly C-parts like bolts, screws, and nuts. We expect to build better coordination with our suppliers and get more consolidated volume and prices.”
General Manager Steven Fang of Fascon Corp. was also invited to give a speech featuring trends of Taiwanese fastener industry. In addition, Bufab Taiwan President Kelly Chen also shared the inception of Bufab Taiwan located in Kaohsiung. President Chen said, “In addition to the complete supply chain and abundant knowledge of manufacturing of Taiwanese fastener industry, we also play a critical role in quality control before products leave the ports of Taiwan. Accordingly, Bufab Taiwan has not only offices and a warehouse, but also a testing lab that can do full-range inspection. Sourcing, purchasing, quality, and logistics are strengths of Bufab Taiwan.”
Group discussions were also given for suppliers to meet Bufab’s management for view exchange. In addition, the suppliers award ceremony was also given before the closure of the meeting to honor their supports and contributions to Bufab.
Bufab Group’s annual turnover totals about USD 0.3 billion. It products are mainly applied to engineering, automotive, telecommunication, offshore, construction, furniture, aerospace, and railway. Having approx. 800 employees in its global operations, Bufab is a trading company and also manufactures technically demanding C-parts at its 2 plants in Sweden.
