40 years of Boomex: success "made in Germany"

Markus Spilles, production manager at the company headquarters in Essen, has been an integral part of the Boomex team since 1984. "I have no regrets about remaining loyal to the company over this long period," he says. He was there from the very beginning, at the heart of Boomex GmbH, at the headquarters and production site in Essen. Not only are the high-quality kerosene lighters manufactured and stored there, but this is also where the company's success story "made in Germany" began in 1984 with this very product - even then with a strong focus on product quality. Over the years, Boomex has added further items to its product range for in-house production and as merchandise: lighting wool, wood and wax lighters and liquid lighters are now produced at the two other sites in Alsfeld and in Romania.

As part of the expansion of the product range, investments were also made in the continuous further development of production processes. According to Managing Director Jörn Seuren, the new filling system for liquids, which was put into operation at the Alsfeld site in 2020, has already paid off: "It is less susceptible to faults, the production speed has been increased by 35% and around 40% less electricity is consumed." In 2023, the Alsfeld site was further optimised and equipped with a new plant for the production of kindling wool. In the plant, wood wool is dipped in liquid wax. Unlike other producers, where the wood wool is sprayed with wax, this increases the wax content, explains the manufacturer. The result is that the firelighters burn particularly well.

This look back to the distant past shows: Boomex has focused heavily on optimising its production processes. "By increasing maximum production output, Boomex is even more flexible and can process orders even faster," says Managing Director Michael Thölken.

A lot is also currently happening in the halls of Boomex GmbH: not only production, but also logistics and warehousing are constantly being put to the test and improved. One ongoing project is the improvement of palletising. Since 2023, adhesive has been applied to the outer cartons before they are stacked on a pallet. This ensures that the outer cartons stick together, which in turn increases load security. In addition, the palletising machine will be equipped with a new robot in 2024, which will stack the outer cartons precisely on top of each other at a higher speed. In addition, special customer requests regarding palletising can be easily implemented. "Boomex is one of the first companies in NRW to use this robot technology in palletising," reports Industrial Director Jörn Kerkhoff.

According to the manufacturer, the new warehouse, which went into operation in 2022, meets the highest standards in warehousing and fire protection. In addition, the new scanner system will be introduced from 2024 with the aim of enabling the tracking of all products and materials. In future, it should be possible to use batch numbers to retroactively determine which components from which supplier were used in a manufactured product. This will also improve the storage of materials used during production, explains Thölken: "Stock levels are updated and monitored in real time. This improves the structure of warehousing and makes production more traceable." Each warehouse employee is equipped with their own scanner for this purpose and can therefore access the digitised data anytime and anywhere. According to Thölken, this not only improves the flexibility of employees, but also streamlines work processes. The scanners also enable digitised stocktaking, which is possible at any time.

Boomex customers can also benefit from these improvements. Apart from its own brand Flash, the company sells around 200 private labels for its customers. In addition to large and small customers in Germany, the company is also expanding internationally. Eco Wood from Romania has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boomex since 2018; here, the production of petroleum-based firelighters and the preparation of wood wool ropes for further processing are carried out in Alsfeld. Eco Wood also trades in wood fuels such as briquettes. "The acquisition of Eco Wood was an important step in the internationalisation of Boomex. We are opening up new markets through the subsidiary and strengthening our supply chain at the same time," says Jörn Seuren.