Insight

Established in 1971 Peter Schröder GmbH started by supplying products from a garage of a residential house. Fifty years later and the company is now celebrating its anniversary as the oldest German wholesaler focused solely on inch products to American and British specifications and standards.

Key cornerstones of Peter Schröder’s business over the last 50 years have been its focus on quality, reliability, flexibility and dependable delivery, which has enabled the company to maintain its position at the forefront of the market. In this time the company has developed a comprehensive product range that includes approximately 10,000 different parts held at its warehouse in Erlenbach, Germany – which was purpose-built for the company back in 2014.

The move to the purpose-built warehouse has been instrumental in the company’s success, as it enabled Peter Schröder to streamline the picking process and make picking orders more efficient. This was down to new racking, organisational structure, as well as maximising the space available. The picking shelves were also restructured according to product, size, and length, with there still being space to expand as and when necessary.

“Whether our customers are looking for standard or custom solutions our team will get the desired inch size threads quickly and reliably from our optimally filled warehouse. If you cannot find what you’re looking for, our internal sales service are also happy to assist both wholesalers and end users worldwide with our extensive knowledge,” comments Jörg Schröder.

When it comes to supplying its customers, Peter Schröder is confident of the quality of its products – having worked with its suppliers for several years and established good working relationships. “We work with big companies within the US and the UK, as well as smaller distributors for specific products,” points out Jörg Schröder. “We take quality very seriously and we ensure that our US and UK partners understand the significance of reliability and service.”

To also help guarantee the quality of its products, Peter Schröder has a quality management system, which is officially certified by DEKRA (Federal German Standards Authority) on an ongoing basis. Products are also available to specific American standards, including military standards (MS and AN parts), as well as National Aerospace Standards (NAS) – which are used by companies such as Boeing and Airbus. Products according to ASTM standards for the oil and gas industry are also available.

“All these products have to meet set specifications. We have 28 folders of different specifications that we are able to provide the relevant products. The customer simply tells us the number and we can see what screw is needed, what material and what length.”

For those customers that need a special length fastener, Peter Schröder works with a special machining company that can offer reworking of products very quickly. It also works with a local plating business, which means it can provide a full range of coatings and plating according to customers’ requests – something that is becoming more important and popular each day.

“There are only a select few companies that are solely focused on inch products and are able to supply the range and depth of products that we can. Some of the larger companies will have inch products in their range, but they do not specialise in them and will not be able to offer the comprehensive range we can.”

The company concludes: “We are proud of how far we’ve come in 50 years and what we’ve achieved in that time. As new challenges come to light – such as BREXIT, Covid-19, etc – we face these head on with our vast experience and industry knowledge. We will continue to grow to enable us to serve our customers with the highest quality possible.”