30 years of basan-the cleanroom company: A success story in the cleanroom market

[11.01.2012]

basan GmbH is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The current balance: The retail enterprise operates with seven subsidiaries around the world, primarily in Europe and Asia, as well as diverse sales partnerships and franchise dealers. The portfolio includes more than 5.000 high-quality products, supported by a customer-oriented service concept. The basis for this success is the corporate philosophy of the enterprise managed by proprietor Jacobus C. Bartels: "Guaranteed supply from one source".

A look back
The company, founded in the Netherlands by the father and brother of the present-day proprietor Jacobus C. Bartels, started out small selling dust binding wipers and strippable paints. Nor did the beginning phase of the founder's son foretell the success story that the company would experience. As a "one-man operation" with brochures from a copy shop and no warehouse, Jacobus C. Bartels entered the German market in 1982. That was the beginning of the global enterprise that today is basan. In these 30 years the company systematically developed a diversity of products for the cleanroom market, in combination with a service concept that covers the needs of its customers. Specifically, that means: We develop customized solutions in cooperation with the customer in order to create and implement a comprehensive concept for our products and services.

Milestones in the history of basan
Proprietor Bartels defines one of the first important milestones in 1997 – the year in which the full service concept was introduced, after many years of preparation. The goal of this concept: To generate genuine added value for the customer with a broad, high-quality product portfolio and corresponding services. The full service concept offers the customer absolute guaranteed supply – from one source. The right products are available at the right time in the right quality and quantity. Such concepts work only with individual solutions that are developed and implemented in cooperation with the customer. A customer requirement analysis is conducted for the purpose of product, quantity and cost optimization. If the customer so desires, he can put the entire supply chain in the hands of basan. basan takes care of requirements planning, logistics and distribution of products.

An essential step for optimizing processes was taken in 2002 with the introduction of electronic commerce for the processing of orders in SAP. The investment, which was enormous for a mid-sized company, was worth it for the customers, since many basan customers use SAP. The advantage with respect to efficiency is clear: automation and synchronization save time and money, in addition to eliminating sources of errors.

Comprehensive service
In addition, basan maintains close customer contacts for the purpose of cooperation. "That is important for understanding the customer's needs beyond the mere product," Bartels explains. This allows us to develop product-related services that the customer really needs. The services range from training of personnel to creating cleaning and hygiene schedules, designing personnel air-lock concepts or developing leasing concepts. On request we also develop customized products, such as particular fabric qualities or overalls with integrated flat hoods from our proprietary clothing series Quantus®.

basan is therefore much more than a retail enterprise in the conventional sense; we are a comprehensive service provider with a focus on our customers.

The next step: Internationalization and partnerships
The next strategically important step, and the focal point of the past few years, was the internationalization of the retail business with subsidiaries in Europe and Asia. Preceded by the establishment of sales partnerships in various European countries, the acquisition of the distribution division of cleanroom consumables from the US competitor Metron Technology in Europe, Singapore and Malaysia in 2007 was a further milestone in basan’s history. An exclusive partnership was formed one year ago with Entegris, for which basan sells products internationally for several customers. The process of internationalization clearly has advantages for the customers: Diversification of the sales partners and therefore of the products, especially through the entry into the Asian market, in addition to faster delivery times and better terms, as well as increased supplier reliability due to the global supplier network.

Regional and industry-related expansionIn addition to regional expansion, basan has placed importance on systematic diversification into other industrial segments in the past years. Cleanroom requirements are industry-specific – each industry has different requirements. Special know-how is necessary in order to offer customer-oriented and application-specific solutions. While the focus of the early years was on the semiconductor industry, for many years now basan has invested intensively in the pharmaceutical industry, developing specialized personnel, know-how and products for this sector. The course pursued by basan here is again clearly customer-oriented. For example, the company has developed and successfully implemented special GMP training for the pharmaceutical industry. In addition to the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries, basan reliably serves all industries with controlled production requirements. This also explains basan’s large product range, because each industry has very specific requirements.

In the anniversary year, all signs continue to point toward expansion. The company will move to larger and more modern facilities, where administration and logistics will work together under one roof. The new headquarters will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology and processes will be implemented to further optimize the supply chain.

Anniversaries are always a reason for in-house celebrations. But what does a 30th anniversary mean to basan’s customers? Especially three things:

- The high quality of our products and services which has evolved over time and is confirmed by a long tradition
- Reliability in customer and supplier relations
- Unfailing
- Market and customer orientation

basan – the cleanroom company
With seven subsidiaries in Europe and Asia, numerous sales partnerships and franchises in Europe and 30 years of experience in the cleanroom market, basan is a leader among retail enterprises for cleanroom products and providers of product-related services. In Europe and Asia, more than 125 employees work in the subsidiaries and logistics centres in Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Malaysia, Benelux, South Africa, Vietnam and Singapore. basan supplies all industries that require controlled production conditions – in particular microelectronics and pharmaceuticals, the food industry, the automotive and optics industries and the medical technology sector. 

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