Interview with Christian Thiele, Head of Marketing and Communications at Hartmetall-Werkzeugfabrik Paul Horn GmbH, one of the world's leading manufacturers of precision tools and accessories.
IndustryArena: For over 50 years, HORN has stood for precision, quality, and innovation. Which milestones in Paul Horn's history have particularly shaped the company and made it what it is today?
Christian Thiele: After its founding in 1969, the company initially introduced its own products to the market, starting with the three-edged indexable insert, followed later by the Supermini system. Today, the product portfolio includes 25,000 standard tools, and since its inception, more than 200,000 custom solutions have been realized. We developed our first in-house coating—many more have followed since.
From an organizational perspective, international expansion in the 1990s was a significant milestone, with the establishment of subsidiaries in England and France. During this time, the first sections of Plant 1 were built at the current site in Tübingen.
Another major milestone came in 2016 with the completion of Plant 2 and the new administrative building. At 20,000 square meters, Plant 2 is the largest commercially used building in Tübingen. With new machining capabilities, such as synchronized spindles, we have recently been able to implement several new processes on the tooling side, including power skiving and polygon turning. Our most recent milestone is our Supermini with sintered chip-breaking geometry, which allows us to efficiently, quickly, and cost-effectively solve chip control issues in internal machining as a standard off-the-shelf solution.
HORN offers a wide range of tools, including those for aluminum machining, such as the newly revised PCD milling program. How do these tools differ from existing solutions on the market?
Our rotating PCD precision tools are tailored to the needs of our customers. For example, cutting lengths are only as long as the customer actually requires, which saves resources and promotes sustainability. We have the expertise for these tools both in manufacturing and in application, with a focus on aluminum machining. Additionally, we offer the tools in a modular design, allowing customers to configure their tools according to their specific needs.
Your company is now active in 70 countries. What challenges do you face in international marketing, and how do you adapt your strategies to different markets?
Of course, each market has its specific requirements and focus areas. Our challenge is to standardize our global brand presence despite the varying conditions and circumstances, while still taking regional and cultural differences into account. This applies to both the selected imagery and the associated messages like 'Mastering processes' and 'Explore HORN'. We have been promoting our global brand presence for many years and have had very good and positive experiences with it so far.
The HORN Technology Days are a key event for your company. How do these events contribute to customer loyalty and brand strengthening?
We have such a wide range of tools and solutions that it can only be communicated to a limited extent in its entirety. The Technology Days are ideal for showing users how we manufacture our precision tools and how they are applied in various applications. In this way, our customers not only gain extensive insight into the manufacturing process but also a broad perspective beyond their own field, allowing them to find inspiration. The technical presentations and practical demonstrations are also designed to convey knowledge, providing real value to the visitors.
What role do digital marketing channels and social media play in HORN's communication strategy? Given the recent developments on major platforms like 'X' or Facebook, have these changes influenced your social media strategy?
In Germany, we mainly use LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and of course Industryarena. Social media are complementary channels to our main channels, such as trade magazines, exhibitions, our own website, and our eShop. Although the online presence is becoming increasingly important, our most important channel remains the personal and direct contact with our customers, users, and prospects. We are, of course, observing the developments on the platforms you mentioned. Paul Horn GmbH is not active on X. On the aforementioned channels, we focus strongly on providing information.
Your company also emphasizes its responsibility for the environment. How do you integrate sustainability into your marketing strategy and communication?
We actually find this quite challenging. For us, sustainability is not primarily a marketing topic, but rather a matter of course. As a family-owned company, we plan for the long term and handle our resources and the environment responsibly. We use photovoltaic systems for partial electricity supply, stream water for cooling, have our own filtration systems in place, are equipped with energy-efficient LED lighting in production, and have built multi-story structures in many areas, just to name a few examples. All of this is self-evident for us. The upcoming reporting requirements under national and European regulations mean that the topic is also gaining focus in terms of communication. Ultimately, however, our communication still focuses on technology.
Direct communication with customers is highly valued at HORN. How do you use customer feedback to optimize your marketing efforts?
Customer feedback is always valuable. For example, with the HORN Technology Days, we used an empirical survey to examine the knowledge transfer and adjusted and optimized the content of our technical presentations and practical demonstrations to meet the needs of our customers. In addition, we have worked in the past, alongside personal exchanges with our customers—mainly through our field sales colleagues—with copy tests, media response analyses, and more. Only when we know who we want to reach can we steer the content in the best possible way.
Skilled labor shortage is a major issue these days. Your HORN Academy plays a central role in your employee development. Could you briefly describe what makes the Academy special and how you manage to attract and retain skilled workers?
Our HORN Academy is our own training and development facility. It is based on five pillars: training, further education, retraining, studying, and customer seminars. For many years, we have placed great importance on our training department to ensure we are equipped with well-qualified personnel for the future. The continued education of our staff ensures that we can meet the constantly changing technological landscape. As a family-owned company, it is important for us to engage and empower people even in a changing environment. We don’t bind our employees through individual measures. I am convinced that we offer a comprehensive package that ensures people enjoy working with us. From the workplace to the tools, tasks, trust, mutual respect, dialogue at eye level, general and individual conditions, company sports, to the company restaurant, and much more.
What trends and developments do you see for the coming years in the marketing of the precision tool industry, and how is HORN preparing for them?
We clearly see the development of AI – both in the areas of text, images, and video. Here, I see clear challenges and trends that can greatly simplify and accelerate processes, but also risks such as copyright, fact-checking, relevance, and manipulation. Therefore, I tend to favor a sensitive, conscious, and targeted use of this technology, especially in marketing and communication.
Can you briefly describe in one sentence what makes HORN special and what sets the company apart from the competition?
Our technologies, our service, our personal consultation, the dialogue at eye level, and a special sense of togetherness make us unique both as a tool supplier and as an employer.
Mr. Thiele, thank you for the interesting and insightful conversation.
For more information about Paul Horn GmbH, click here.