Feeling the benefit

Maximising business opportunities is the key to success: Dr. Daniel C. F. Koehler, chairman of APRA Europe, explains what APRA Europe – and its members – got out of Rematec 2019.

Time flies. Rematec 2019 is already history since more than three months now and Rematec Asia has celebrated its first event.just

We, as APRA Europe, still feed on this year’s Amsterdam edition of the Rematec show. Not only did we celebrate our 30^th anniversary: we also gave our largest-ever contribution to the show with our renewed booth concept and design, six APRA expert presentations, the first General Assembly of the members of APRA Europe - as well as the Reman Industry Reception as the co-host together with Rematec.

It was our intention to get in touch with you - our members and the remanufacturing community - in order to learn about your concerns and expectations regarding future business and, in particular, our association work. As you may have noticed, we are trying to constantly increase member benefits for the sake of your business.

In order to facilitate communication, we also set up the nice and green, illuminated column at our booth. It said: “Why remanufacturing is important to me” and we asked you to write down your spontaneous thoughts on the question. This brought joy to all of us and supplied us with many interesting discussions. Of course, we are happy to share with you some of the statements and our comments about reman:

• It extends the life cycle of the product and keeps it affordable
• It is important for the environment and the quality of used parts
• It fits perfectly with the circular economy and reducing climate change
• It keeps the environment clean

All the statements have two things in common. In the context of remanufacturing, everybody has the clear environmental benefits in mind. This is a great opportunity to promote our business in times where politicians and the public increasingly push carbon saving solutions. Also, you are positive about the business framework as a whole. You are seeking to still extend it which shows us that we are all still on the right track from the business case perspective.

Aside from the column, we also distributed an APRA Europe sticker to all our members who were exhibiting at Rematec, which said: “Proud member of APRA Europe”. This allowed us to get very direct feedback from our members.

Now, what was APRA Europe really getting out of Rematec 2019?

• We have been able to find a considerable number of new members due to our better positioning, which helps us grow our voice and weight
• We learned much from our members and the community about our own strengths and weaknesses and will keep on evolving on this basis
• We held our General Assembly at Rematec and will keep on doing so because it is a central meeting point for the community and avoids additional travel times, cost and emissions for a separate place

The bottom line is that we believe Rematec 2019 was a full success for the association and in terms of benefits for our members. In this spirit, let us keep on growing the remanufacturing community. APRA and Rematec will be the facilitators.