The opening of the new production facility of Kurtz Ersa Manufacturing México S.A.DE C.V. in Ciudad Juárez is an important step for the company and the Chihuahua region. Over 70 guests, including business partners and colleagues from Mexico, the USA and Germany, took part at the official opening ceremony. The presence of prominent guests such as Cruz Pérez Cuellar, the mayor of Ciudad Juárez, and Fernando Alba, who is responsible for innovation and economic development in the Chihuahua region, emphasized the importance of this event.
It took just over a year from the ground-breaking ceremony to the inauguration of the new site with 4,500 m2 of production space, offices and demo center – with the festive inauguration in Juárez, Kurtz Ersa has now established its third major service and logistics center in America after Plymouth (USA) and Guadalajara (Mexico). The new production facility will initially focus on the production of Ersa reflow soldering machines and will also act as a pre-production facility for the US plant. Since 2012, Kurtz Ersa has had a local presence under the flag of Kurtz Ersa México. Due to the rapidly increasing demand in Mexico, the company moved to Guadalajara in 2016 to a larger office including a demo center for Ersa tools and machines, where customer seminars and training courses have also been held since then.
In 2022, the strategic decision was made to expand our own production capacities to Mexico. Following the expansion in 2020 with a new building in Wertheim, additional growth can be created with the plant in Mexico, which will also benefit the Wertheim production and development site and further strengthen Kurtz Ersa globally. Inspired by the success of the reflow soldering systems in Asia, where around 1,000 machines have been produced annually since 2013, the decision was made to also build the new high-end HOTFLOW THREE model in Mexico in the future.
“After careful consideration of various cities and options, including leasing an existing facility, we decided to build here in Juárez, a location that offers proximity to the US border, a talented workforce and excellent infrastructure,” said Albrecht Beck in his speech, who in his role as President & COO Kurtz Ersa, Inc. is also Managing Director of Kurtz Ersa Manufacturing México.
At the beginning of 2024, the management team in Mexico had put together a start-up team of highly qualified engineers – six of these engineers had traveled directly to Germany, where they received extensive training, including building their first machine and working on documentation and processes. The aim of manufacturing in Ciudad Juárez is to produce machines that match or even exceed the quality of machines “made in Germany”. To ensure this, the same advanced production methods and processes have been introduced.
“I am convinced that this plant will develop into a vibrant center of our production activities and that we have made an excellent choice with Ciudad Juárez – on behalf of the management, I would like to thank everyone involved in the successful implementation of this project. First and foremost, I would like to mention Marcelino Espelosin and his team México, who made the successful realization of this ambitious project possible. Also, the entire US team of Kurtz Ersa, Inc. as well as the German Ersa and Kurtz colleagues, who have contributed significantly to the establishment of production here with tireless commitment,” said Albrecht Beck,
before handing over the microphone to Vincent and Rainer Kurtz, who, as representatives of the Kurtz shareholder families, emphasized the strategic importance of the project for the Kurtz Ersa Group. The words of welcome were followed by the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony, factory tour, festive buffet and live music from a mariachi band, before numerous customers were able to immerse themselves directly in the performance capabilities of Kurtz Ersa systems on the following Technology Day.
