Honpe Prototyping has been servicing customers for almost 20 years. Although most of their work is done for leading companies in the USA, Canada, Japan and China, of course, they also have some important customers in Europe. This year Honpe Prototyping has decided to strengthen its position in Europe and has set up operations in Italy and Spain.
An indisputable leader in industrial design, Italy is of vital importance for Honpe Prototyping in this regard. Style Centres, R&D departments and Production Plants, our primary customer group worldwide, are highly concentrated in Italy.
We have interviewed Roman Goronok, director of Honpe Prototyping Italy, analysing with him Honpe Prototyping’s strategies in its approach to the European and Italian markets.
What are Honpe’s strategies for the European and Italian markets?
“Our strategy is crystal clear: to give 100% satisfaction to both large enterprises and small projects, including start-ups, bringing fastest delivery, impeccable quality and perfect confidentiality. In many aspects of prototyping technologies we have few or no competitors in Europe, like difficult shape light-leading or light-reflecting parts, 5-axis aluminium, steel or rare metal parts, making our prototypes look and in most cases function as serial production units. Being a very large company with about 250 CNC machines, including 5-axis machines, 620 employees, 3D testing laboratory, laser works, surface finishing, leather works and other workshops, we have managed to introduce a sophisticated ERP system, allowing our partners to monitor work in real-time with an APP.”
When will Honpe Italy’s operation get underway?
“It has started already. We are currently at the stage of registering our Representative Office in Italy and selecting the future office address. It looks like it will be in Via Morimondo, 23, Milano, but an official announcement will be made.
Torino is an equally important area to us and we see no obstacle to opening an office there too in the near future. Honpe Prototyping also brings social support to the places where it operates. We also give technical expertise and prototyping sponsorship to important design schools and museums in Italy, adding to our company’s social importance.
Potentially some production capacity will be moved to Italy. Delivering this high quality in a short time at a significantly better price allows our partners to concentrate on developing rather than on cost saving, and gives them an opportunity to do more with a limited budget. This makes it easier to market our activities in Italy.”
Above, some images of the Honpe Prototyping company presentation event that takes place, in september, in Mauto Museum in Turin.
Which are your current customers?
“We are proud to have a lot of Fortune 500 clients. We are among the few companies in this business area certified not only ISO9901 and ISO14001, but also ISO 27001 for security of information. This will help you to understand why we don’t give names publicly. It is enough to mention that in our daily life many people use products once prototyped by Honpe for an important manufacturer, or products for which Honpe has produced moulds.
Today the world has become very dynamic, the globe feels smaller than 20 years ago and borders are becoming invisible. A production lead time of just a few days for a perfect quality part and 36 hours delivery by express service on average satisfy even the very advanced customer.
This makes our partnership with satisfied customers long-term. We are here not for one deal. We are here to stay.”
