50 years of Zeutschel – 50 years of Innovation
Zeutschel, a specialist in analog and digital scanning and storage systems, celebrates its 50th anniversary. Founded as an engineering firm, the Tübingen-based company now is a global leader in the area of book scanners and has greatly shaped the microfilm technology market. In its anniversary year, Zeutschel sets the course for future growth with its latest innovation: zeta, a universal scanning and copying device for bound documents which raises the bar in terms of design and cost-performance ratio.
Found around the globe
The birthplace of the company is Sielmingen near Stuttgart. Here, Heinz Zeutschel established an engineering firm in 1961 that focused on the development of scientific microfilm devices.
To pursue the development, production and sales on a larger scale, the company moved to Tübingen-Hirschau in 1967, which is where the current headquarters are located. In the mid-80s, the founder ceded his company to the Steiff Group. Jörg Vogler and Hans-Peter Heim took over the company´s management in 1996 as part of a management buyout. Jörg Vogler has been the sole owner since last year.
The first decades were largely shaped by microfilm. Not just microfilm readers and reading/re-enlarging devices but also microfilm cameras and special scientific devices came from Hirschau at that time.
Parallel to the ´digital revolution´ in the 90s, the product range was then expanded to include overhead scanners. These allow the originals, such as books and periodicals, to rest on their backing. The scanning is done from above, eliminating the burdensome and time-consuming process of turning over the book.
Zeutschel quickly established a strong position in both markets. “How many companies can claim to successfully operate in two completely different technological worlds,” current owner and Managing Director Jörg Vogler says with pride. He adds, “At least one Zeutschel system is being used at every national archive and national library worldwide.”
Universities, government agencies, land surveying offices, land registry offices, banks and insurance companies are also among Zeutschel´s customers.
This high demand resulted in the rapid growth of the company. Today, Zeutschel generates more than 10 million euros with its products and achieves good returns according to Jörg Vogler. Zeutschel currently employs a workforce of 65 people. In the beginning, the company had only two employees – Heinz Zeutschel and his wife Gisela.
What can other companies learn from this success story? Jörg Vogler doesn´t have to think twice about his answer. “Innovative strength, optimal balance between sophisticated and versatile products and the consistent internationalization of the business – these are the central themes throughout our company history.”
50 years of innovations
Half a century of Zeutschel also means 50 years of innovations. Again and again, Zeutschel employees ventured into uncharted technological territory with much dedication and typical Swabian ingenuity.
With the OMNIPRINT 4, Zeutschel became the first European company to produce a device that allows you to re-enlarge from microfilm to standard paper – a forerunner of modern copying systems. The most successful and most modern microfilm camera system for use in archives and libraries also comes from Zeutschel. The OK 300/301 has been sold more than 700 times worldwide.
As a pioneer in the book scanning market, Zeutschel established the first overhead scanner on the market in 1993 in collaboration with Kodak. Then in 1997, Zeutschel launched the first grayscale book scanner on its own. A year later, this was followed by a color book scanner, which combined excellent image quality with high productivity for the first time.
Four years ago, Zeutschel´s OS 12000 brought book scanning into the public access areas of libraries. There patrons can use the device to copy books and periodicals quickly and with minimal damage to the originals.
The company´s latest innovation, the digital copying and scanning system zeta, even goes one step further. “Until now,” Jörg Vogler says, “two reasons have prevented the use of overhead scanners for copying applications: the machine´s size and the price. We will change that with zeta.”
With a possible scan size of nearly A2, the new Zeutschel model currently is the proportionately smallest book copier on the market. And at around 8,000 euros, zeta can compete against high-performance office copiers in terms of price as well.
In order to maintain and boost its innovative edge in this competitive environment, Zeutschel invests more than 10 percent of revenues in research and development. A third of all Zeutschel employees work in this area.
“If we stop being innovative, we will soon stop being good at what we do,” Jörg Vogler explains.
Versatile devices
Zeutschel products often set the quality standards for devices in the respective category. The Zeutschel OS 14000 is a good example: The book scanner was specifically designed for the digitization of historically valuable documents, which are reproduced as true-to-original digital images. Thanks to the OS 14000, anyone can marvel at the handwritten notations of one of the greatest German composers at www.bach-digital.de.
“State-of-the-art technology is one side of the coin. The other is striving to make new technologies accessible to broad user groups – when the time is right,” Jörg Vogler explains.
Even already in microfilm times, this was accomplished impressively. With its SYSTEMATIC 370, Zeutschel developed a microfiche reader that was used by the German Federal Railway for modern ticket sales in the 80s. Clerks gathered the train information from the display screen of the reading device and then printed it out on the computer. The reader, which was compact, quiet and easy to handle, could be found at nearly every ticket counter of the German Federal Railway.
Now zeta is to become to overhead scanning devices what the SYSTEMATIC series was to microfilm. In addition to its compact, sleek design, the device particularly stands out for its intuitive handling by means of an integrated touch screen. Fingerprints are retouched, misaligned pages are automatically straightened and distortions at the book fold are corrected if necessary.
“With zeta, we make overhead scanners truly versatile,” Jörg Vogler explains. In addition to libraries and archives, he sees all types of office environments as new application areas. “There is no faster or better way to scan and copy pages from magazines or books.”
Consistent internationalization
Its location in Germany is of great importance to Zeutschel. The entire production, including quality control, as well as all research and development activities take place in Hirschau. Also, most of the necessary components are supplied by regional companies. “For our customers around the world,” Jörg Vogler says, “this means top quality ´Made in Germany.´”
On this basis, the company pursued a consistent geographic expansion of its business activities. “None of our competitors are as well-positioned internationally as Zeutschel,” emphasizes Jörg Vogler, who greatly fostered this development as the Head of International Sales.
The company is represented in more than 100 countries, and its export ratio is between 70 and 80 percent. For selling the products, Zeutschel focuses on a close and fair collaboration with specialist dealers.
An eye on the future
Although a nostalgic look back on the very beginnings is quite appropriate after 50 years, Zeutschel is already working on the future again.
The scanning and copying system zeta is a key component of Zeutschel´s growth strategy. It is to considerably help increase sales by 20 percent annually in the next three years. “With zeta,” Jörg Vogler says, “we will further strengthen our market leadership in the area of overhead scanners and tap new target groups for book copying at government agencies, banks, insurances and law offices.”
Zeutschel expects an additional boost from expanding its business area ´Software.´ An extensive range of software for establishing and operating digital libraries is being developed under the umbrella brand OSCAR.
“The course is set for the coming years, and we are already thinking about what will come after scanning,” Jörg Vogler says, hinting that one can expect interesting innovations from Zeutschel in the future, too.