Long-term partners strengthen collaboration in South America

Strengthening collaboration (from left) Julian Preciado Espinosa (General Manager Freund-LatAm), Yucel Deniz (Senior Area Sales Manager, Shareholder Freund-LatAm), Benjamin Hölker (Managing Director Hölker Group) (Photographer: Rene Sutthoff)

What began nearly 20 years ago with joint trade fair booths at the AMI in Chicago and Agroprodmash in Moscow has long since developed into a deep partnership. More and more often, Freund Maschinenfabrik and the Höcker Group offer their products for the meat and food industry through joint channels or via resellers who represent both product groups for their customers. This year, the two companies shared a booth at the IFFA trade fair. Furthermore, the partners announced at the Frankfurt fair that they plan to expand their collaboration to South America in the future. Specifically, the 2021-founded Freund-LatAm S.A.S., as a sister company of the group based in Paderborn, will mainly include Höcker hygienic entrances and lifting tilting devices in its product portfolio. With a warehouse in the free trade zone at Rio Negro, customers from the Freund company location in Colombia can be quickly and easily supplied with high-quality Höcker stainless steel products.

"The hygienic entrances and lifting tilting devices are a good addition to our machines for humane and sustainable slaughtering and processing," says Julian Preciado Espinosa, General Manager of Freund-LatAm. "The market is currently still dominated by American manufacturers, but with our broad product portfolio and sensible expansions, such as those from Höcker, we have already managed to gain some market shares recently," adds Yucel Deniz. The Senior Area Sales Manager and shareholder of Freund-LatAm has been with the company for 16 years and has worked with Höcker for almost as long. Since 2015, he has intensified the South America business and has also repeatedly offered solutions from the partner. "Freund's products are already very popular in South America; good work has been done in recent years," says Höcker Group Managing Director Benjamin Höcker. "We target the same customer base with our products. Why not leverage the synergies available to us for ourselves and our joint customers in South America?"

In addition to increasing awareness of Höcker products in the Latin American market, expanding the collaboration also includes other joint trade fair appearances.