Three questions to … Christian Dreßler

Christian Dressler has been second managing director at Meiller Aufzugtüren since 1 January 2024. The 42-year old has taken on the role of the management spokesperson.

Dreßler is also technical managing director together with Klaus Schafranietz is in charge of the company, which produces lift doors for the European market.

You have been the new CEO at Meiller for over a year and lead the company together with Klaus Schafranietz. What has changed at Meiller, what changes do you still want to implement in future?
Dreßler: Since I joined Meiller as CEO with Klaus Schafranietz as COO, I have focused on designing our structures to be more agile and customer-oriented. We have made our internal processes more efficient and intensified the cooperation between departments in order to be able to react to market changes faster.

An important step was the increased orientation to the modernisation market, which has become increasingly vital due to the stagnating new construction sector. In future, we want to expedite the development of innovative, resource-friendly products that meet the higher demands for safety, sustainability and efficiency. In addition, our goal is make further progress in the internationalisation of the company in order to develop new growth potential in foreign markets too. For me, further enhancing our digitalisation is especially important to enable us to optimise processes and offer customers more individual solutions.

The crisis in new construction is of course also affecting component manufacturers in lift building. How is Meiller dealing with this challenge - modernisation can't do everything ...
Dreßler: The decline in the new construction market is affecting the entire sector. For us, this means seeing the modernisation market not just as a supplement but as a central business field. Modernisation can admittedly not completely make up for the new construction market but it holds enormous potential.

This is why we are deliberately betting on modular, flexible solutions that simplify exchanging components, minimise shutdown times and at the same time meet current safety and energy efficiency standards. Moreover, we are intensifying our cooperation with lift builders and planning firms to develop customised solutions. Our goal is not just to renovate existing lifts but also create genuine added value with smart technologies.

When this LIFTjournal is published, Germany will have voted. What measures do you expect from a new federal government – especially for SMEs?
Dreßler: For SMEs, I'd like to see a clear, reliable framework from the new federal government that opens up new trading opportunities in international markets and in this way reinforces global competitiveness. The reduction of bureaucratic obstacles is urgently needed to allow investments to be realised faster.

The building sector has enormous potential for CO₂ reduction and precisely here government could provide an important impetus with tax incentives or investment subsidies. Support in the digitalisation of production and business processes would also be decisive to underpin the competitiveness of SMEs. Moreover, special attention should be placed on securing skilled labour - what we need here are stronger initiatives in education and further training to counteract the shortage of skilled labour.

More information: meiller-aufzugtueren.de