E/D/E (Einkaufsbüro Deutscher Eisenhändler GmbH) has suc-cessfully set up an independent business division called Technical Trade, and topped up its personnel to include expe-rienced sector experts. From 1 July, the management team will include Thomas Surray in the capacity of new business division manager. The goal consists of creating additional specialisation within the association to offer member compa-nies even greater professional support.
Wuppertal. Thomas Surray, 47 and born in Wuppertal, has at his disposal long-standing sales and management experience in the sector. In his last position the trained wholesale and import/export merchant and graduate in business management (VWA) managed the North East Germany Division of
ERIKS, and was a member of both the national and international management committees in the wholesale Group. “Boasting more than 20 years’ professional experience in technical trade, Thomas Surray has the best prerequisites for his new tasks,” says Hans-Jürgen Adorf, E/D/E Management Chairman. The Wuppertal Purchasing and Marketing Association has also managed to win over experienced sector specialists for the man-agement of these two specialist areas Industrial Safety and Tech-nical Trade, namely Andreas
Schäfer (Technical Trade) und Bernd Lechtenberg (Industrial Safety). At the same time, E/D/E has reinforced the team with product and data managers and additional sales employees. The business area, therefore, currently has 25 employees. Further personnel additions are planned in conjunction with expanding the data management. The trade in technical products and industrial safety products has steadily become more important in the last few years at E/D/E. In the last business year, these product areas generated sales of 540 million euros with overall association sales of 5.3 billion euros. Sales in Technical Trade and Industrial Safety of about 280 million have, therefore, almost doubled in seven years. For this reason E/D/E transferred the respective specialist areas to an independent business division as early as 1 January.
“The personnel and organisational reinforcement of the goods areas is the logical consequence of the positive development, and forms the basis of further sales successes by our members,” explains E/D/E Head Hans-Jürgen Adorf. “The challenges for our members will increase considerably in the next few years, and the demands placed on us by the members likewise. We aim to ad-dress this.”
E/D/E sees additional growth opportunities for its member compa-nies in the new products and in users’ changing requirements in this area. “At E/D/E we can identify these developments by way of our know-how and, therefore, provide member companies with support in line with the market,” explains the E/D/E Managing Di-rector responsible for Goods and Sales Dr. Christoph
Grote. In this respect the specialist area Technical Trade also specialises in the Fluid Technology, Sealant Technology, Drive Technology and Chemical Adhesives and Sealant segments.
The Industrial Safety specialist area focuses on the structured preparation of article data and the further development of market-ing concepts, catalogues and brand names. In addition, the spe-cialist group PREMIUM Industrial Safety set up last year has commenced operations. Almost 100 regionally significant dealers are now organised in the various E/D/E specialist and competence groups in the business division Technical Trade, and many of these also hold leading positions in Verband Technischer Handel e.V. (VTH).
E/D/E maintains a collegial and constructive relationship with VTH. The services of both organisations supplement each other perfectly for the specialist dealers. Download this Press Information as PDF: New E/D/E Business Division Technical Trade

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