Steppacher and the TFC Group establish TFC Singen in South Germany

TFC Europe Ltd is delighted to announce the acquisition of Steppacher Schrauben Grosshandel on 1^st October 2014, a move that secures the long term future for this quality fastener distributor that is highly rated by its customers. We are pleased that our Steppacher customers will continue to be served by their trusted supplier, which will now be called TFC Singen, operating from its existing Singen premises by the excellent and very experienced Steppacher team.

Steppacher was established in 1983 and developed into a broad based fastener and associated product distributor focused on the engineering industries of South Germany. Steppacher was founded by Karl Steppacher who will be withdrawing from the business once he has helped with the transfer to TFC ownership, but the existing team will move forward now with TFC support and investment under the day to day management of the well known and highly respected Hubert Sieczkowski who continues to focus the team on complete customer satisfaction.

TFC have been operating in Germany since 1994 from North West Germany and established TFC Bochum which now has a turnover of ‚¬5m and over 1200 customers based all over Germany but with many in South Germany.

Over the years Steppacher has built up an excellent reputation for service and quality with its existing South German customers and it has expanded steadily. However with TFC support, TFC Singen will now be able to expand more quickly in order to meet all of its customers™ demands.

TFC Singen is based in 78224-Singen, to the South of Stuttgart and specialises in the supply of quality industrial threaded fasteners especially special screws and bolts. This move means that TFC is able to extend its already extensive footprint into South Germany and thus able to offer its customers in the South of Germany local fastener logistics coverage. We are very pleased that TFC will now be able to offer their full range of Direct Line Feed and Vendor Managed services locally to both TFC and Steppacher customers in South Germany through TFC Singen.

TFC Singen will continue to service its customers in South Germany as before but with the support of the TFC Group which will allow the TFC Singen team to focus more on customer requirements than the back office demands of running an independent business. Support from the TFC wider team will enable benefits of scale improvements to IT, logistics, purchasing and quality and this will be witnessed by customers as further improvements to an already impressive service record.

TFC’s Managing Director Morgan Burgoyne said This is a great opportunity for our customers and for the TFC Group. Steppacher has developed huge loyalty from its customers who would like to purchase more were it not for its previous limitations as an independent. However with TFC Singen we can now offer customers the benefit of a strong and mature business with its great reputation for service and quality, combined with the access to TFC technology, products and skills. This will create a world class fastener supplier for customers in South Germany in conjunction with our Technical and Logistics centre in the North West.

The TFC Singen integration into the TFC Group means that turnover will move beyond £20m over the coming year with TFC offering its customers full logistics coverage and DLF services whilst still offering its renowned technical product range and technical support services throughout Europe.

The TFC Group now has 7 customer service centres in Europe.