Committed to quality

2024/11/06   |   Bergisch Gladbach   |   Germany

It is not uncommon for joineries to exist for generations. The fact that company succession takes place outside the family is actually more common. This is what happened at the Arens joinery in Bergisch Gladbach. Long-standing employee and master craftsman Niklas Arens took over the business in 2023.

The street Brandroster is also a district of the Bergisch Gladbach neighborhood of Refrath. The joinery with house number 19 has been in existence for more than 50 years. The company was renamed Arens on January 1, 2023. Master joiner Niklas Arens has taken over his training business – after years working as a journeyman, in full-time master craftsman training, and five years as an employed master craftsman. Step by step, he takes on more of his own projects – not only in terms of craftsmanship, but also commercially. The handover of the business went off extremely smoothly, most likely because it was so well prepared. Another reason could have been that previous owner Friedhelm Brings himself had taken over the joinery in a similar way. So the business has not only existed for more than 50 years, but is also in its third generation – and third family.

For Arens it's out with the old and in with the new

Speaking of family: Niklas Arens doesn't come from a traditional family of craftsmen; the plan was actually for him to take his high school diploma and go on to study at university. However, after finishing secondary school the young Niklas had had enough of the school desk and decided to become a mechatronics engineer. At his parents' request, he did an internship at Friedhelm Brings – and was thrilled by the experience. Together with journeyman Heino, who has been with the company for 33 years and whose boss he now is, he built a solid wood frame and learned the ropes of the joinery trade at first hand. Still lacking experience in terms of his vocational training, Niklas opted to spend a six-month gap period in Nova Scotia, Canada at a high school that conveniently featured woodworking on its curriculum and had a fully fledged joinery workshop to boot. Now of age and raring to go, he began his training in Refrath.

The business has changed a lot in recent years, especially since Niklas Arens has been at the helm. Old machines out, modern ones in. He has also revamped the office environment and the work preparation process, with an increasing number of work steps now being digitized. And for good reason: Arens wants to remain the first point of contact for customized fitted kitchens, individual furniture and innovative interior fitting solutions in the region, though with the joinery having made such a good name for itself in the affluent neighborhood and barely any construction site more than a 15-minute drive away, the term region is now almost an exaggeration.

A new edge is needed

As already mentioned, Niklas Arens immediately set about modernizing the machinery. This also included a new edge banding machine, even though the existing one wasn't actually all that old. But the master joiner wasn't at all satisfied with the quality. So the motto is: new edge, right edge. That's why the choice fell on HOMAG, or more precisely on the EDGETEQ S-200 – the next level for woodworking shops. The Refrath-based company had already had good experiences with HOMAG in the CNC sector, and the local machine dealer was more than convinced by the model. Things moved quickly. In May 2023 Niklas Arens inspected the machine at LIGNA, and while on a family holiday in June he received a call informing him that he could have one of the first machines. The edge bander was up and running in October.

In terms of quality – and this is something Niklas Arens never tires of emphasizing – it is a world of difference: no more post-processing; thanks to preset parameters, the employees don't have to readjust anything by hand and, what's more, changing the glue is child's play.

Relaxed edging at last

Glue is the keyword: it was important to the 31-year-old that the new edge bander could also process PUR glue. It's a good thing that the QA65 N industrial application unit is now used on the craftsman's edge bander. This makes it possible to switch between PUR and EVA in less than three minutes. In addition, the integrated magazine height adjustment means that joiners can switch between edge widths quickly and easily. The top-mounted glue tank makes cleaning simple and residue-free. No wonder Niklas Arens and his employees are completely satisfied. However, the master joiner sees the greatest advantage in the finishing units, which make manual reworking superfluous.

With the EDGETEQ S-200, the company more than fulfills its own quality standards and those of its customers – also thanks also to the high-precision edge feed and reliable strip separation using vacuum suction units.

Even greater quality

Niklas Arens is hoping for a similar increase in quality in other areas in the future. He's been toying with the idea of a small cutting center and a 5-axis CNC for some time. The only obstacle here – and it's typical of traditional joinery – is space. The eight employees may not be getting under one another's feet at the moment, but if the business continues to grow at its current healthy rate two or three more journeymen are likely to join their ranks. The joinery workshop will then probably have to undergo some remodeling work, with thought also given to adding another story. Niklas Arens has now discarded the original plan to build on a greenfield site within the industrial estate. The bureaucratic hurdles are too high, and, after all, too much joinery history lies within the joinery workshop walls at Brandroster 19.