Thomas Runde is CEO and Sales Director of Tietjen Verfahrenstechnik GmbH since 2013. He combines a background from machine manufacturing and environmental technologies with a hands-on and result-driven approach to business and leadership. Tietjen delivered more than 2,200 projects in particle size reduction technologies worldwide to nearly all countries of the world since 1959.
You have a rich career in the industry, what initially lead you to this field?
Hidden champions and specialised tech companies are one of the ‘German-made specialties’ when it comes to process and machinery engineering. Tietjen was one of these raw diamonds when I met the team the first time in 2012. With one foot in the feed and food sector and another one in environmental technologies, Tietjen immediately caught my attention as a business developer and investor. Lately, with the rise of premium petfood worldwide, Tietjen benefited from its deep experience in petfood since more than 30 years. And I liked the highly international orientation with more than 65 percent of Tietjen business generated outside of Germany.
As the CEO of Tietjen, you’ve undoubtedly encountered various challenges in the industry. Can you share a particularly significant obstacle you’ve faced and how your personal values and leadership philosophy guided you through it?
On the technical side, the variety and complexity of raw material in petfood grew strong over the last 30 years. More nutritional aspects and marketing points had to be considered. We managed to cope with this by intensive research and continuous development of Tietjen´s particle size reduction know-how. One example I can think of is, during the last decade, we became the first and only company to grind high fat and protein-rich diets on screens smaller 1mm in petfood , in high-capacity production. In the past, customers had their volume lines for easy to process eco-products and the low volume lines for the premium or super-premium products. This world has changed, and we do both high fineness and high capacity at the same time and for challenging raw materials. The history and future line up of new Tietjen products tells a strong story regarding this point. Commercially, the consolidation of customer structures and internationalization of the petfood markets had to be dealt with. We have always been extremely dedicated in terms of special, individual solutions, being close to our customers. Tietjen never sacrificed any quality aspect for quick gains in market share. This proved to be the right strategy for markets demanding more from process suppliers – expecting intense R&D collaboration, know-how transfer and at the same time concentrating their power on the procurement side.
What are your personal beliefs regarding the importance of sustainability in the Petfood production sector, and how do they align with the company’s goals and practices?
Every industry, especially in the feed and food sector, has to consider our responsibility for the environment. Good food and feed ingredients can only be earned from a healthy nature. Also, energy is one of our customers main production parameters and determines our carbon footprint to a big extend. Tietjen introduced the term ‘green grinding’ long ago to the market and we expect customers to more and more optimise on the energy input. Particle Size reduction is among the top three consumers in a petfood plant, after drying and extrusion. So, we have to do our part and Tietjen gives a range of solutions: Highly efficient reluctance motors, smart controls for motors and aspiration, and last but not least good concepts to reduce the energy input into particle size reduction significantly. We made those benefits for the environment to be a part of our Tietjen DNA. Product advantages will only be implemented in our solutions and can only sustain, if they are carbon neutral or even more efficiently using energy and natural resources, like raw materials.
Collaboration is often essential in driving innovation. Can you share your thoughts on the importance of partnerships and knowledge-sharing within the sector, and how these collaborations have influenced your leadership style?
As a specialist in its field, Tietjen empowers collaboration models more than any bigger player in the market. We can leverage our special know how and access to premium customer groups, if we combine our knowledge with the special knowledge of partners. Their solutions often work down-stream and upstream with our process of particle size reduction. This works extremely well and we appreciate partners and friends in business coming from these partnerships – most of them being across-borders and working with us for many years now. Upside for the customers of these ‘collaboration products’ is that they get an extremely well designed and made-to-measure solution that allows them a unique differentiation in their markets also. The premium our customers receive lies in both, improved end product quality as well as highly available and efficient production processes. And both factors push profitability also – a win-win in many aspects.
In your opinion, what are the most pressing challenges or opportunities in the petfood industry today?
Food and petfood markets are merging. From the product view as well as from the customer perception. This means we are dealing with new customers and requirements in the petfood industry almost every day. But this challenge is appreciated as it gives us a good opportunity to differentiate. Particle site reduction is the first process step that is changing key properties of the raw materials. So, Tietjen technology is preparing bases for all subsequent process steps, as conditioning, extrusion, drying or coating. To constantly keep this process perspective, consider the different effects downstream is like playing chess, you always have to think multiple steps ahead.
Where do you think the industry will be in 2050?
I guess the beat goes on, meaning capacities per line will grow on, new special products and diets have to be considered and the consolidation and specialisation of our customers will force us to develop adequate answers in terms of new machines and solutions. After all these efficiency optimization loops done, the industry is still spending too much energy on each kilo gram of petfood. There is a potential to bring this down and Tietjen will lead the market in grinding solutions that will make it happen.
