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Newsletter 04/2007
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Editorial
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Dear Friends of
Katadyn
The drinking water
issue is still a hot topic, be it on journeys or at home. A study
conducted by a Swiss cantonal laboratory just recently published by a
reputed Swiss consumer magazine gives the mains water we use every day
very poor grades: It reports that water is not only frequently
contaminated by germs, but also contains too much harmful lead and
nickel. Many consumers who to date have blindly trusted our mains water
are now plagued by doubts. But the water we drink at home is not the
only problem: Water-drinking poses a particular risk when we are
traveling and spending our leisure time in Nature. And that is a risk
we know how to deal with today – a fact that Katadyn has been proving
across the globe for years.
2007 will be
remembered as a successful year in the history of Katadyn. Just like
other companies, we had to struggle with sharp hikes in raw materials
prices, and the historical low of the U.S. dollar did not make things
easier. Nonetheless, we have achieved our corporate sales targets,
thanks mainly to two factors. On the one hand, the Vario Filter we
rolled out has met with lively response from all our markets. On the
other hand, our products have enjoyed brisk demand in Mexico,
which ordered large numbers of Drip Filters after the flood disaster to
ensure safe purification of drinking water.
We are ready to
meet the New Year 2008 full of confidence. Katadyn has just acquired
Optimus International AB, the Swedish producer of outdoor stoves and
accessories. With Optimus and Trekking-Mahlzeiten and with its existing
line of water filters, sterilization agents, and desalinators, Katadyn
now caters to another important need in outdoor missions and expeditions.
In order to maintain our position as the global Number One in
individual water treatment, we plan to invest more energy than ever in
our sales efforts in the coming year and will continue our
implementation of the Kaizen philosophy. An article in this Newsletter
tells you more about this Japanese management philosophy.
On behalf of
Katadyn, I extend my warmest thanks to you for the outstanding
collaboration and the many valuable inputs we receive daily from our
sales force in the field and the many users of our products worldwide.
We wish you a Happy
Holiday and a Prosperous New Year in 2008.
Trix Ammann
CEO
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Have you heard?
- Katadyn acquires Optimus of
Sweden
- World first: Canned
Cheeseburger
- Ideal Christmas
gift: Vario Filter with drinking bottle
- Mains water
contains too much lead and nickel
Marketing &
events
- Katadyn takes part
in the "Hauser-Tage" in Germany
and Switzerland
Markets &
customers
- Katadyn filters for
Afghanistan
- Striking out for
new frontiers
- Adidas Natventure
team at the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge
Katadyn in-house
news
- Achieving
world-class stature with Swiss Kaizen
- Survival training
at Katadyn
- Katadyn sales reps
Ray Brooks and Dorita Hoff follow the Incas' trails
Katadyn exhibition calendar 2007
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Katadyn acquires Optimus of Sweden
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Katadyn Products
Inc. is expanding and has just acquired Optimus International AB, maker
of outdoor stoves and accessories, from the Swedish company ThinkOut
AB. This acquisition will enable Katadyn to strengthen its market
position in the niche market for technical outdoor products.
Optimus of Sweden
has been producing outdoor stoves since 1899. Beside gas, multi-fuel,
and kerosene stoves, the company’s product range also includes
cookware, cooking utensils, various fuels, and accessories. The Optimus
brand stands for safety, ease of use, and innovative design and caters
to the needs of sophisticated users. Katadyn North America has been
successfully marketing the products of Optimus since 2006. Since
December 1, 2007, Katadyn Deutschland GmbH has been in charge of sales
in Germany and Austria.
The acquisition of
Optimus enables the Katadyn Group to add an attractive range of
products to its own existing portfolio. Together with the Katadyn water
treatment products and the freeze-dried specialty foods of
Trekking-Mahlzeiten, Katadyn now offers three complementary product
lines. This means that Katadyn will set an even sharper focus on the
outdoor market in the future. The Optimus brand will remain and the
product line will be integrated in the new company Katadyn Scandinavia
AB with headquarters in Stockholm.
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World first: Canned
Cheeseburger
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Trekking-Mahlzeiten
has rolled out a world first in the form of a Canned Cheeseburger
product. Nothing could be easier to prepare it: Simply heat the can in
a water bath, open the lid, and munch your Cheeseburger! Never before
has it been so quick and easy to prepare a burger when camping or
traveling through the wildness.
People who rely on
the experience of an expedition food specialist such as
Trekking-Mahlzeiten for cooking their meals while on trips have more of
life: more enjoyment, less weight to carry, and more time for other
things. The Canned Cheeseburger with roasted onions, a cucumber, and
mustard will allow you to relish the full pleasure of being in the
freedom of Nature.
Due to the beef
that this product contains, it is basically not possible for customs
reasons to export the Cheeseburger to countries outside the EU. But
should you still be interested in this new burger, please contact your
customs administration for advice.
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Ideal Christmas gift: Vario Filter with drinking bottle
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The Vario is now
available from specialized dealerships just in time for the Christmas
season together with the matching drinking bottle from Nalgene. It
enables you to carry along filtered drinking water in your backpack
when on hikes. Its great advantage: You can screw the filter onto the
bottle, allowing the freshly filtered drinking water to flow directly
from the filter into the bottle. As soon as the bottle is full, you
remove the filter and stow it away. This allows you to drink pure
filtered water straight from the bottle during your hikes. You can
adjust the Vario individually according to the water contamination and
connect it perfectly to the drinking water bottle. This makes it the
ideal Christmas gift for people on trips both in the mountains and in
the tropics, where drinking water may be heavily polluted.
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Mains water contains too much lead and nickel
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“K-Tipp,” a popular
Swiss consumer protection magazine, just recently revealed considerable
quality deficiencies in the mains water we drink. Contrary to
widespread belief, the water supplied by utilities is not only
frequently contaminated by germs, but also contains too much lead and
nickel. The dramatic thing about this is that the results of the study
conducted by a Swiss cantonal laboratory were not available to the
public at large before being revealed by the “K-Tipp” magazine. The
problem: If you don’t let the water run for several minutes before
consuming it, you risk impairing your health in the long term. This is
because the nickel comes mainly from the water faucets, but the lead
from fittings such as water meters and manifolds farther away. If you
let the water run for some time, this will reduce the nickel content
quickly, but the lead content only slowly. A total of 212 water faucets
were tested in 152 predominantly new private and public
buildings.
http://www.k-tipp.ch/
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Katadyn takes part in the "Hauser-Tage" in Germany and
Switzerland
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An increasing
number of people are preferring trekking vacations in the freedom of
Nature to package tours in beach resorts. In its capacity as a drinking
water specialist, Katadyn Germany took part in this year’s
“Hauser-Tage,” an event held by the largest trekking organizer in the
German-speaking countries of Europe. At the event, which took place
from November 8 – 11, the up-and-coming trend destinations for outdoor
aficionados were presented, ranging from easy field trip hikes and
treks to expedition-like mountaineering tours. Excursion specialist
Hauser also organized an information event in Switzerland. Katadyn
attended it and offered numerous trekkers, mountaineers, and globe
trotters information on the consequences of drinking polluted drinking
water on their journeys.
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Katadyn filters for
Afghanistan
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In mid-October, one
of the largest humanitarian airlifts of the past 30 years was launched
in Europe. It was organized by the children’s relief organization
“Kinder brauchen uns e.V.” and the “Albertinen-Gruppe” clinic in
Hamburg. Twenty Afghan children that had been treated in Germany were
airlifted back to their home country. 59 children, some of them
seriously injured and ill, were flown to Germany for treatment. In the
chartered plane to Kabul, the eight tons of relief supplies also
included our Drip-water Filter. Water contamination in Afghanistan has
claimed numerous infant deaths and caused extremely serious
gastrointestinal disorders in many children. Parasite attack may cause
grave organic damage, mutilations, and diseases. The Katadyn Filter
offers especially the smallest among the children the hope of
appreciably improving their health. The Water Filter project is a pilot
project designed to allow the easiest possible filtering of heavily
polluted water. The operating instructions were translated into Farsi
(Persian) to enable the filters to be safely used also in schools and
other facilities. The filter uses three ceramic elements, does not
require any chemicals or electric power for its operation, is very easy
to handle, and reliably filters bacteria, parasites, and various virus
strains out of the water. In this cooperation venture, Katadyn granted
a special price for this humanitarian campaign.
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Striking out for new frontiers
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Four mentally
disabled persons and two social education workers from the Mansio
Foundation recently set out for an adventure trip to Greece. Relying on
sea kayaks and their feet, the six adventurers from Eastern Switzerland
toured the Pilion Peninsula on the eastern coast of Greece to discover
new frontiers and roads in this mountainous coastal region hardly ever
visited by tourists. They did so also in the figurative sense – each
one for themselves.
On board the kayaks were also Trekking-Mahlzeiten meals and Katadyn
Filter products. One of the Swiss Mansio Foundation’s goals is to help
the mentally disabled by offering them pedagogic adventure trips. This
type of project costs very little, since the participants always cook
their own meals and sleep outdoors.
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Adidas Natventure team at the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge
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The Adidas
Natventure team achieved the 9th place in the overall placings at the
Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge, which was held from December 9 to 14. We
congratulate the team on this outstanding accomplishment! The team
members had to brave the challenges in the following disciplines: sea
kayaking, orienteering, mountain biking, tightrope acrobatics, inline
skating, and high-speed camel trekking through the desert of Saudi
Arabia. A total of 27 teams from across the globe competed for the
prize money of 200,000 U.S. dollars. Trekking-Mahlzeiten supported the
Adidas Natventure team members Marc Pschebizin (GER), Beni Hug (SUI),
Carmen Schindler (GER), and Martin Flinta (SWE).
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Achieving world-class stature with Swiss Kaizen
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Ten years ago,
Katadyn was struggling to survive. Like many other Swiss companies,
Katadyn considered moving jobs to the East, where wages are lower. Then
came the turnaround: The new corporate management reshuffled everything
by launching the Swiss Kaizen campaign. The formula produced a success
story: Today, this mid-size company is innovative, systematic,
responsible, and in particular highly profitable.
To keep things this
way, Katadyn relies on Swiss Kaizen, an approach modeled after the
philosophy that turned Toyota into a top global player – doing what is
good even better. The Katadyn Group Management committed itself to
Switzerland as a production site and set its focus on the Outdoor and
Travel markets. The company therefore shed its communal water treatment
activities. This reorientation enabled Katadyn to become a global
market leader. Today, the company produces all its travel water filters
and desalination pumps as well as its water sterilization tablets in
Switzerland.
Crucial to this
success are Katadyn’s employees, for as in any other company,
productivity depends solely on the people working in it. In order to
steadily increase productivity, employees must be involved in all the
relevant decision-making processes. This will increase personal
accountability, and staff members can put forward their own ideas for
improving processes. Rules and control mechanisms that are too rigid
will unnecessarily increase fears of failure. Sanctions are the
greatest innovation killers in a business. Only if you are allowed to
make mistakes can you improve what is already good.
Key to this
philosophy is the reduction of waste at all levels in the company. This
includes the smart design of work processes to eliminate redundant
motions and handling operations on the shop floor. Katadyn therefore
eliminated its centralized warehouse and introduced direct storage next
to workplaces. Though a centralized warehouse will reduce material
losses, employees lost up to 60 percent of their working hours waiting
and collecting material. These so-called opportunity costs are often
simply forgotten in analyses. Also the introduction of a One Piece Flow
system boosted efficiency and greatly improved employee morale. Before,
the entire production process was split up into hundreds of discrete
manual operations. For example, employees had the monotonous job of
screwing the water filter onto the housing and then passing on the
resulting assembly to the next workers. Today, every Katadyn employee
assembles the entire product, from assembling the individual components
to packaging the finished filter. This production process offers
another benefit: The quality standard increases appreciably when
employees feel accountable for the entire product and not only for
individual operations within the process.
The introduction of
Kaizen has changed the culture and structure within our whole
organization and cut costs by several million francs. Today, employee
morale has greatly improved, and the staff will not hesitate to take
responsibility for what they are doing. Each staff member – from
administration to production – has a direct stake in the company’s
profits. Kaizen has enabled Katadyn to achieve cost leadership in the
industry and to become one of Switzerland’s most efficient companies.
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Survival training at
Katadyn
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John D. McCann and
his Swiss life companion Denise Vogler from the U.S. outdoor specialist
Survival Resources recently paid a visit to the headquarters of Katadyn
Switzerland. We showed our American colleagues water filter production,
which is entirely located in Switzerland. The survival specialist duo
showed great interest in the Katadyn Vario, which can be directly
combined with the Nalgene Water Bottle. This product has met with U.S.
outdoor enthusiasts’ unconditional acceptance, fully satisfying their
needs (see also “Did You Know” in this issue).
www.bepreparedtosurvive.com
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Katadyn sales reps Ray Brooks and Dorita Hoff follow the Incas'
trails
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The two sales
representatives of Katadyn USA, Ray Brooks and Dorita Hoff, took a
Katadyn Vario with them when they set out on the Inca Trail to Machu
Picchu (see also “Did You Know” in this Newsletter). The two
adventurers had to use their filter even at high altitudes, where you
can normally expect pure mountain water. The main water contaminators
in the Andes are the cattle living there. Shawn and Dorita could thus
avoid diarrhea and an early end to their journey.
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Katadyn exhibition calendar 2007
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Visit us at following exhibitions:
- FESPO in Zurich,
Switzerland (January 31 to February 3)
- Camping &
Sports Show in Zagreb, Croatia (February 20 – 24)
- Show FIDAE in
Santiago de Chile, Chile (March 31 to April 6)
- Eurosatory Army
Show in Paris, France (June 16 – 20)
- OutDoor in
Friedrichshafen, Germany (July 17 – 20)
- Boat Show in
Genova, Italy (October 4 – 12)
- Boat Show in
Barcelona, Spain (November 8 – 16)
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Swiss Water Talk
Mrs. Viola
Frey
Corporate Communications
Birkenweg 4
8304 Wallisellen-Zurich
Switzerland
Tel +41 44 839 21 16
Fax +41 44 830 79 42
viola.frey@katadyn.ch
www.katadyn.ch
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