Sep 30, 2026 · 1 hr 9 min · 15 segments
Würth Industry USA CEO Daniel Schmidt made his way through the Würth apprentice program over 30 years ago, reaching his current leadership role at the helm of a billion dollar plus industrial…
And we're now exactly at the point that I knew we would get to where it's hard to talk about the future without also talking about what's coming at the same time.
And we all have this sense that if we're not really making the right decisions now, that we're going to miss something.
And that's got to be, I can only imagine in your position, weighing heavily on your mind.
I'm happy that you didn't ask me the question, what keeps you up at night? Because there, luckily, I have a very good sleep and I'm usually also not getting stressed out very quickly.
But still, there's a lot, which is on your mind where you think about the future and what do we really need to do.
But when it comes to our industry, like the fastener industry in general, I still think it will remain essential.
They will differentiate through supply assurance, through quality, traceability of products, and then also the technical expertise, because that might also be a problem on our customer side that they are not getting this in the future or less and less at least.
and at the end it's about lower total cost which is not only the unit price it's more really to bringing the whole package to our customers because well that's the old saying but the fastener is a very small part but it has a big consequence when it's unavailable or it's the wrong quality And that's what makes it then really an expensive part.
So our focus is much more on the supply resilience and the supply networks, which we all experience now multiple times if it is a global supply chain crisis with COVID or the freight is not going through the Suez Canal or somewhere where we needed to adapt very quick and in an efficient way.
I can't remember when it's the last time that there is not a new compliance or reporting topic.
If it is CBAM or all the different tasks we are having to comply today with different data sets.
Yes, there is a tidal wave of those types of regs that are seems like they're coming and they're always coming.
And it's then getting even more complicated if the European Union is coming up with something where we can say, OK, well, it doesn't matter to us that much.
Well, at the end, it matters because also our customers here in North America are manufacturing and exporting to European Union.
because we want to support our customers not only here but around the world because that's also one of our big value propositions which we have for our global customers that we can supply and bring them the same service all around the world which i think is one of the big benefits
And we're now exactly at the point that I knew we would get to where it's hard to talk about the future without also talking about what's coming at the same time.
And we all have this sense that if we're not really making the right decisions now, that we're going to miss something.
And that's got to be, I can only imagine in your position, weighing heavily on your mind.
I'm happy that you didn't ask me the question, what keeps you up at night? Because there, luckily, I have a very good sleep and I'm usually also not getting stressed out very quickly.
But still, there's a lot, which is on your mind where you think about the future and what do we really need to do.
But when it comes to our industry, like the fastener industry in general, I still think it will remain essential.
They will differentiate through supply assurance, through quality, traceability of products, and then also the technical expertise, because that might also be a problem on our customer side that they are not getting this in the future or less and less at least.
and at the end it's about lower total cost which is not only the unit price it's more really to bringing the whole package to our customers because well that's the old saying but the fastener is a very small part but it has a big consequence when it's unavailable or it's the wrong quality And that's what makes it then really an expensive part.
So our focus is much more on the supply resilience and the supply networks, which we all experience now multiple times if it is a global supply chain crisis with COVID or the freight is not going through the Suez Canal or somewhere where we needed to adapt very quick and in an efficient way.
I can't remember when it's the last time that there is not a new compliance or reporting topic.
If it is CBAM or all the different tasks we are having to comply today with different data sets.
Yes, there is a tidal wave of those types of regs that are seems like they're coming and they're always coming.
And it's then getting even more complicated if the European Union is coming up with something where we can say, OK, well, it doesn't matter to us that much.
Well, at the end, it matters because also our customers here in North America are manufacturing and exporting to European Union.
because we want to support our customers not only here but around the world because that's also one of our big value propositions which we have for our global customers that we can supply and bring them the same service all around the world which i think is one of the big benefits
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