For LAPP, with its 27 international production facilities and over 50,000 products in its catalog, this means striking a strategic balance between global solutions and local customer proximity.
“Our customers operate internationally and expect the same reliability, quality standards, and technical solutions everywhere,” emphasizes Matthias Lapp, CEO of the LAPP Group. “To achieve this, our company must operate in an even more integrated and global manner, without losing the local strength and customer proximity that have distinguished us as a family business for over 65 years.” LAPP, the global provider of integrated solutions and branded products in the field of cable and connection technology, is now bringing this transformation to its customers with full force.
The LAPP Group is also expanding into new sectors. The company built its brand on products like the ÖLFLEX® control cable, used, for example, in mechanical engineering. This business remains important, but LAPP now operates in markets that didn't even exist when the company was founded: data centers, renewable energy and associated battery storage systems, smart factories, and logistics centers. Customers are increasingly demanding specific connection systems, complete assemblies, and digital support throughout the entire supply chain and project lifecycle.
“We are seeing a clear shift in the components business towards comprehensive solutions that cover the entire spectrum of connectivity technology. In other words, the combination of components such as cables, connectors, cable glands, and routing systems, customized and developed individually for the customer. This is changing our market presence, our internal processes, and also how we organize value creation,” explains Dr. Christoph Hiller, Sales and Marketing Director. Matthias Lapp emphasizes: “LAPP has a unique selling point that we will focus on even more in the future. We offer the complete range of connectivity technology from a single source: engineering and production expertise for all components, plus comprehensive services. With this approach, LAPP is unique worldwide.”
Global Standards, Local Implementation
: LAPP positions itself between two approaches: uniform international standards on the one hand, and local manufacturing expertise on the other.
This model is becoming an increasingly important success factor in the global industrial goods business. For example, research, development, and product management operate as a centrally managed and globally connected unit. This ensures that LAPP's technical standards, product quality, and customer commitments are consistent worldwide. Production, however, takes place in the respective local markets. This offers decisive advantages: shorter lead times, high adaptability to local standards, and more resilient supply chains, to name a few. This proximity to customers is also necessary for developing specific assemblies or special cables according to their requirements.
LAPP is growing in Asia and the Americas.
The "local for local" principle has defined LAPP for decades and dates back to the forward-thinking vision of the company's founders, Ursula Ida and Oskar Lapp.
"In a world marked by protectionism and new trade barriers, regional value creation guarantees stability and flexibility," says Matthias Lapp. LAPP is seeing increased industrial investment, particularly in Asia and the Americas, ranging from the expansion of renewable energy to new manufacturing capabilities in the electronics and automotive sectors. "These regions are experiencing dynamic growth and increasing professionalization. Recent years have shown that we are successfully striking a balance between globally coordinated offerings and local adaptation, thereby gaining market share," says Dr. Christoph Hiller. As a result, the Stuttgart-based family business is achieving significant double-digit growth rates in countries such as India, China, South Korea, the USA, Mexico, and Brazil.
