Business Unit Lab
At the turn of the millennium, the laboratory market appears to be virtually hermetically sealed off, with any and all claims already staked out. A successful medium-sized, family-owned company like KNF appears increasingly unassuming on the global laboratory market. But what is the use of producing the best laboratory pumps around if the market is not fully receptive to them? A solution has to be found.
In 2001, it is this need for a more proactive approach that leads to the birth of KNF Lab – the company’s brand within the laboratory market. KNF Lab is subsequently unveiled at ACHEMA in 2003. Its objective is to raise awareness of the benefits of KNF laboratory pumps among a wide audience of laboratory customers worldwide and to establish KNF as a global supplier of premium laboratory equipment. Its motto is “first-class pumps for first-class science.” The launch of KNF Lab meets with an overwhelming response, and this initial yet decisive step is only the first of many. KNF goes on to set up its own lab specific training room so that it can demonstrate its products in a realistic environment. In 2007, it launches its SC 920 vacuum pump system onto the laboratory market. With its simple handling, remote control and low space requirement, this system is exactly what users are looking for.
Over the next few years, KNF expands its range of systems for a wide variety of laboratory tasks. Following this development drive, the next logical step is to pool resources centrally. But this doesn’t result in the desired step ahead. An intensive period of reflection with KNF’s internal and external stakeholders ensues to find out why. Every KNF Sales Center worldwide takes care of their own laboratory customers locally and completely independently. These laboratory customers are always divided into two groups: laboratory equipment distributors and decision-makers within the laboratories themselves. All the marketing activities are also organized locally.
However, with the changing times, this once successful approach has become outdated. The laboratory world has become a global village, with other countries and continents just a mouse click away. A company that persists in using a local approach to manage a brand in this environment soon runs the risk of losing their clearly defined image – especially among large international laboratory equipment distributors. And this would be enough to weaken any brand’s position considerably.
With this in mind, KNF sets to work on establishing an updated plan to meet the new requirements of laboratory equipment distributors and laboratory decision-makers. The result is the 2020 establishment of the Business Unit Lab at the Freiburg-Munzingen location in Germany, which centrally organizes marketing and sales. A three-stage plan is now in place to join forces across Europe, Asia and the USA to create a uniform strategy – always aiming at market leadership for KNF’s excellent laboratory pumps and laboratory pump systems.
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