New Managing Director for Ersa

Wertheim, 15 December 2017

Ersa GmbH from Wertheim is heading for record turnover once again in the fiscal year 2017, continuing the trend of the past few years. The company is part of the Electronics Production Equipment segment of the Kurtz Ersa Group based in Kreuzwertheim in Franconia, which accounts for more than half the turnover. With the strong growth of the last few years and future targets in mind, it has been decided to strengthen the management team. The experienced manager Ralph Knecht took up his position on 1 October 2017, following 22 years working for Schlafhorst, the international market leader for spinning frame and textile machinery. From 2000 onwards the graduate engineer (UAS), who is originally from Swabia, was responsible for various business units, including three years as the General Manager at Zinser, the ring spinning machine specialist, and five years as Sales and Marketing Manager at Schlafhorst. From 2014 to 2016 Ralph Knecht completed an Executive MBA at the University of St. Gallen University parallel to employment.

Since Ersa was taken over by Kurtz 25 years ago, the business with soldering tools and machines for electronics production has been a tale of strong growth, with the company currently employing 470 people. Rainer Kurtz has been sole Managing Director of Ersa GmbH since 1993 and will be leaving the company on 01.01.2018. Since 2003, Rainer Kurtz has also been Chairman of the Managing Board of the Kurtz Ersa Group, which has about 1,400 employees and makes an annual turnover of around 265 million euros. In future, Rainer Kurtz wishes to dedicate his time to the management and strategic expansion of the Kurtz Ersa Group. Within the Group, he will still be responsible for the Electronics Production Equipment segment. Alongside Ersa GmbH, this also includes the strongly growing production of soldering machines in Zhuhai, China, as well as the global sales and service activities of the business unit.