Bechtle : founds company to bolster PLM business

• Bechtle consolidates PLM capabilities under a single brand
• More than 600 employees make up Bechtle PLM Deutschland
• New synergies created to accelerate growth

Neckarsulm, 13 December 2023 - As of 01 January 2024, four of Bechtle's dedicated subsidiaries for product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions-Coffee, DPS Software, Solidline and Solidpro-will merge into the newly founded Bechtle PLM Deutschland GmbH. Based in Neckarsulm, the company will employ well over 600 people at more than 40 sites across Germany, making it one of the largest PLM specialists in Europe. The original companies, all long-time members of the Bechtle Group, have a combined customer base of more than 25,000 active accounts largely in the manufacturing industry. The previous managing directors will all take on senior leadership roles overseeing different units of Bechtle PLM.

"We've seen our PLM business develop exceptionally well over the past years, and we want to use this momentum to fuel continued and substantial growth both in our traditional areas and in emerging fields as well. This fusion dramatically amplifies our potential," says Uwe Burk, Executive Vice President, PLM | Engineering & Manufacturing, Bechtle AG.

Consolidating activities under the strong Bechtle brand will unlock new synergies in particular when it comes to marketing shared solutions, a consistent approach to customers, and collaboration with vendor partners. Bechtle's portfolio of PLM solutions and services centres on CAD/CAM and product management, sale configuration, digital twins, smart factories, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), digital manufacturing, the industrial internet of things (IIoT), as well as 3D printing. The PLM ecosystem also extends to APIs connecting enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) applications.

Robust manufacturer partnerships
Through the formerly discrete subsidiaries, Bechtle PLM has excellent and long-standing ties with major manufacturers in the industry, including Dassault Systèmes, SolidCAM, HCL, DriveWorks, 3D Systems, Markforged, Sintratec and HP. Over the past years, each of the four companies has earned numerous European partner awards and seals of excellence, and all previously obtained certifications and partner statuses will retain their validity within the new constellation.

Experience accumulated under one roof
The four specialists have over 30 years' experience in the industry and are all well embedded into the Bechtle Group, with Solidpro having been acquired in 2010, followed by Solidline in 2011, Coffee in 2018, and DPS in 2020. Together with its other PLM-focused acquisitions-Swiss Solid Solutions in 2011 and SGSolution in 2023, Austrian Planet Software in 2014, and 2021 purchase Cadmes with sites in the Netherlands, Belgium and France-the Bechtle Group has more than 800 employees in Europe specialising in the fast-growing PLM market.