Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 19 November 2012 - At its autumn meeting, the Executive Committee of the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders' Association) and the Special Section for Machine Tools and Manufacturing Systems in the VDMA (German Engineering Federation) elected Martin Kapp as Chairman for another three years, with Dr Mathias Kamm?ller, Trumpf Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH + Co KG, Ditzingen, and Carl Martin Welcker, Alfred H. Sch?tte Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH & Co KG, Cologne, as his deputies. His second period in office begins on 1 January 2013.

The first three years of Martin Kapp's chairmanship saw an unprecedented upturn in the German machine tool industry following the severe slump in orders during 2008. "Today, our sector is once again performing very well", is his summary. Nonetheless, he adds, there are major challenges ahead. "Globalisation is progressing, the market parameters are shifting. Our mid-tier members have to cope with the necessity of maintaining a simultaneous presence in many different countries featuring highly disparate preconditions", continues Martin Kapp. Besides the growth market of China, for example, Russia is also providing very good business opportunities, though these also have to be seized. He accordingly identifies another major focus of his second period in office as supporting his organisation's members in penetrating high-growth markets, enabling them to participate appropriately in the rising international consumption of machine tools.

For this purpose, the companies also need good staff and can-do recruits. Martin Kapp regards it as a self-evident and continuous imperative to progress committed involvement here, both in the association and in his own company.

For the future, he sees the internationally leading position of Germany's machine tool industry as absolutely unendangered. It has, he says, repeatedly demonstrated that it is continually capable of coming up with innovations, new ideas, fresh strategies. The issues of sustainability and energy-efficiency in industrial production operations are typical examples. "Here we're better than anyone else," is Martin Kapp's firm conviction. This is why some of the organisation's paramount concerns are to provide appropriate input for future EU legislation in the field of eco-design and to publicise the sector's technical advances in terms of energy savings.

In his day job, Martin Kapp, born in 1951, is Managing Partner of the Kapp Group, Coburg, which also includes the machine tool manufacturer Niles Werkzeugmaschinen GmbH in Berlin. It offers technologies and systems for precision machining of toothing systems and profiles for the automotive, aviation, construction and compressor industries, and in a wider range of applications for the wind power, railway technology, shipbuilding and mining sectors. The Kapp Group operates six facilities worldwide and employs around 800 people.

Headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the VDW has for more than 120 years now been speaking for the German machine tool industry. Together with the Special Section for Machine Tools and Manufacturing Systems in the VDMA, it has around 280 members, who have all affiliated voluntarily. They represent about 90 per cent of the sector's total turnover, most recently 13 billion euros in 2011.