Manfred Huith, 56, proudly states that he has now been self-employed for 30 years. As his order volume grew steadily, he and his team moved into a larger facility last summer, significantly increasing their space from the original 180 to 500 m2.
He started out as a newly qualified master joiner (Ebern), initially installing windows, doors, and flooring, before renting his first "proper" workshop in 1998. From then on, furniture making and interior finishing – particularly exhibition stand construction – developed into a solid and increasingly important second pillar of the business.
The Huith joinery team is a small one: Besides the boss, it includes journeywoman Franziska Manthey and journeyman Mike Gruber, who will attend master craftsman school in the autumn and plans to take over the business from Manfred Huith in a few years. The company will also be hiring a new apprentice joiner in the autumn. In this way, Huith is paving the way for further growth, which he aims to generate particularly in the area of panel processing.
Flexible All-Rounders
The company works with both solid wood and panel materials and has its own finishing room. In addition to private clients, their customer base includes property management companies and hospitals. Here, the joinery offers everything from service and repairs to completely new fit-outs, for example, of entire hospital rooms. The team is also a regular fixture in the construction and fitting out of an Oktoberfest tent and has even fitted out a VIP lounge in the Allianz Arena. Manfred Huith says: "We get most of our orders through recommendations from satisfied customers."
Communication is a top priority at the joinery. Every morning at 7:15, Manfred Huith meets with his team over coffee. They discuss the upcoming workday and find solutions together for any problems that may arise. "We basically decide everything together. And Mike is already heavily involved when it comes to investment decisions."
A Trusted Technology Partnership
Since 1998, he has maintained close contact with the team at the Felder Group showroom in Warngau. "When I was setting up my first workshop, I had very little capital. So at the time, I opted for a combination saw-spindle moulder from Felder. I had to look for something affordable and paid close attention to the price-performance ratio." As the number of orders grew, he later purchased individual machines. He has always felt, and continues to feel, that he is in good hands with Felder for subsequent investments and for service needs.
Then, in 2019, Manfred Huith invested in a compact CNC from Format4: the C-Express Classic. Thanks to its very small footprint of just 3.4 m2 and a precise 17-spindle drilling head, it enables efficient drilling and routing operations. His thinking behind the investment was: "Either we do proper furniture construction, or we don't do it at all." And that calculation has paid off completely, he says happily. The CNC machine is programmed with Felder's Woodflash software directly at the machine.
In early 2021, a Format4 Tempora 400 45.03 L edgebander was added. This machine is also very compact and features units for pre-milling, corner rounding, buffing, and scraping, among others.
The most recent investment is a wide-belt sander. The FW 950 Classic has a powerful combination unit with an electronically-pneumatically controlled sanding pad. For Huith, this is a real quantum leap compared to their previous stroke sander: "The finish is superb."
A Look to the Future
When asked about the next investments, the master joiner replies: "We always invest as our order volume allows and requires." Manfred Huith is cautious when it comes to digitalisation. In the office, they use a self-programmed Excel tool, and drawings are done by hand. "I can make a great impression on customers with skilled hand sketches." Huith wants his business to grow at a moderate pace. He considers a company size of five to six employees to be optimal. At the same time, he wants to increase productivity. His goal is to hand over the business to Mike Gruber in the next few years. Until then, the two of them will surely work together to successfully lay the groundwork for the future, step by step.
