Milling & Baking News - November 8, 2016 - 36

Milling Technology X

After four years, Mr. Birrer moved
to Switzerland, where he has been
ever since.
"My family was ready to move to
Switzerland," he said. "It was time.
After nearly 15 years abroad, it was
time to move to the head office. I think
there is a time frame to reintegrate
into a large organization. If the time
is too long, it is
hard. When you're
'The technological
abroad, you're an
entrepreneur. You
change supporting
have to find soluthe changing market
tions. You develop
requirements
these abilities."
Initially in Uzwil
suggests if you don't
he headed milling
invest, you will
sales,
overseeing
fall back, as in any
150 sales people
globally. It was this
industry.'
assignment
that
- Stefan Birrer,
took him to many
Bühler
additional
countries, with visits
for major, strategic
projects or customer relationships
in Asia, Africa, the
Middle East, Russia
highly concentrated with three com- and Latin America (he is proficient in
panies controlling 80% or more of the English, German, Spanish and Italian).
His responsibilities began shifting
market. It was a much less dynamic
market than Mexico but a constant over the last two years as Bühler, unmarket with ongoing investment re- der the leadership of Johannes Wick,
quirements. Every three years maybe organized its milling business into
one new large plant was built. The five separate units, including indusmain business was upgrading, cus- trial milling (including wheat, dutomer service, adapting plants to new rum and rye); specialty milling (including oats, soybeans, barley, quimarket requirements."
The experience gave Mr. Birrer ex- noa, maize and other ancient grains);
posure to the brewing, feed and rice bakeries (and pre-mix plants); brewing and flour services (selling flour
milling businesses.
After five years, in 2004 Mr. Birrer improvers and enhancers, a business
moved back to Mexico, soon after a focused in China).
Mr. Birrer in 2015 became head of
significant reorganization was done at
the business there. This time he head- the first (and largest) of the five units.
Asked to compare the U.S. milled the entire office, assuming responsibility for Mexico, Central America ing industry with milling elsewhere
in the world, he noted that the U.S.
and the Caribbean.
"The boom there was over," he said. industry has become quite consoli"During the boom years, we built dated, mirroring the consolidation
up too large of an organization with that has taken place in milling's largmanufacturing and could not sustain est customers.
"The big advantage of the U.S. millit. In 2003, Bühler did an organizational restructure that was difficult. I ing industry is that it sits on a lot of
had maintained contact over the years grain," he said. "Good grain. It allows
with our customers, and I returned in millers to operate large scale plants.
2004 to reestablish trust with custom- The industry also benefits from good
ers. It went well; we rebuilt the com- transportation infrastructure. It's easy
to move products around."
pany and operation."
were good ones for Bühler and Mr.
Birrer, who was in his mid-20s at the
time. In 1999, Mr. Birrer moved to
Australia, where he spent five years in
a very different milling environment
serving the Australia, New Zealand
and Pacific Island market.
"It is a market that has passed the
consolidation phase," he said. "It was

36 / November 8, 2016 XMilling & Baking News

The U.S. milling industry is no
longer competitive in the export flour
market, Mr. Birrer said, describing
that as a two-edged sword.
While meaning less business for U.S
companies, the absence from the export market leads to fewer month-tomonth swings in flour production and
reflects that U.S. milling margins tend
to be better than in many other parts
of the world.
Characterizing how technologically
up to date U.S. flour mills are in 2016,
Mr. Birrer said there is great diversity
across the U.S. milling infrastructure.
"The U.S. has some of the most advanced companies operating plants,
very focused, able to produce flour
with low bacteria count, heat treated,"
he said. "Other parts of the industry
are still operated with plants built 50,
60, 80 years ago. They don't have the
same opportunities to respond to today's market requirements. It's very
challenging."
Asked whether older mills can be
remodeled/retrofitted to fully meet
market requirements, Mr. Birrer expressed some doubt.
"The buildings were designed for
different market requirements," he
said. "If you have to adapt this to today's market requirements, it is extremely expensive. Sanitation, food
safety, quality control, process control.
To operate such a mill requires very
skilled labor force. You lose this skilled
labor force - it's very tough."
He said the investments companies
were making to update their facilities
varied widely from one company to
the next.
"Some of the companies are investing in new state-of-the-art plants,"
he said. "Others are hesitant to make
big changes. But the technological
change supporting the changing
market requirements suggests if you
don't invest, you will fall back, as in
any industry."
Commenting briefly on other milling markets around the world, Mr.
Birrer called Europe "very dynamic"
while noting the China market has
slowed considerably.
The development in Europe represents a marked shift following an
extended period of little growth.
This period has ended over the past
five years amid a price fixing scandal that resulted in European Union
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

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Milling & Baking News - November 8, 2016

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