Schmoll America: Thriving in the Global PCB Market

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

As we examine what it means to thrive in our industry, I reached out to Kurt Palmer, president of Schmoll America. The business expansion was created from Schmoll Maschinen to focus on and better serve the expanding North American PCB market. Professionally, Kurt has been in this business for decades. He explains what thriving looks like for Schmoll America as the company moves forward into this new venture and what he is most looking forward to in the years ahead.

Marcy LaRont: Kurt, from the perspective of you and Schmoll, what does it mean to “not only survive, but to thrive?”

Kurt Palmer: The PCB industry is mature and very competitive, as you know. In some ways, I suppose “thriving” is relative. To me, thriving means we are thought of by customers as a go-to partner to exchange thoughts and ideas, and we take those best exchanges and use that knowledge to develop new products with advanced features. It also means having our eye squarely on the ball to develop our team into experts in those areas needed by our customers. That means a relentless drive to hire and develop our people. In the end, it means if we stay focused on the needs of our customers, we should be around for a long time. Schmoll America and Schmoll Maschinen are proud to be considered an industry leader in the segments we serve.

LaRont: You recently announced Schmoll America as a distinct business entity, which is a significant and strategic business move. What led to that decision?

Palmer: Making the decision for Schmoll to come directly into the North American PCB market was long overdue. We knew by directly supporting the market, we would be able to get closer to customers, expand those relationships, and get that direct feedback needed to develop our technology, not to mention it would enhance our direct technical support and after-sales service. What drove us to make this decision now is the positive momentum we’re seeing in the North American PCB market. We must be well-connected to our customer base now more than ever.

To this end, in just our first three months, we’ve added three field technicians with a plan to hire three more in Q3. We have introduced our new series of Schmoll Technology Seminars and embarked on our plan to integrate the Schmoll Germany technical team into the market alongside the Schmoll America team. I think the momentum we have internally also speaks to our thriving.

To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the July 2024 issue of PCB007 Magazine, click here.