BMTEC wants to dominate Europe

The drive for improvement and innovation is ever present. Again and again, founder and owner Bakschik Martirosian and his 22 employees jump into the deep end with BMTEC. Simply because the Emmen-based company wants to offer clients solutions that previously seemed unthinkable. That mission has since taken shape. Indeed, since its founding in 2013, BMTEC has become the market leader in laser cutting of plastics. More precisely: using twelve advanced laser machines, the company produces plastic parts and semi-finished products for some 3,000 customers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark. Among others for renowned parties such as Tesla, Shell, Siemens, Friesland Campina, Philips, Volvo and VDL Groep.

Sample company

'We are simply more ambitious than by far most other companies in our field,' Bakschik explains the company's success. 'We dare to innovate radically in a very traditional market. So much so that we are fast making the transition from a manufacturing company to a software company.' Indeed, feel free to call BMTEC, which recently received funding from the NOM, a model company for the manufacturing industry. And especially when it comes to the far-reaching digitization of production resources and processes.

For example, February 2021 saw the launch of CutWise, an in-house developed software system that greatly speeds up the process from request for quotation to order. 'Through CutWise, users receive a customized quote within just a few seconds,' Bakschik clarifies. 'We can then convert the quotation into an order in one click, choose the desired delivery time and then follow the entire production process through to delivery in real time. Like ordering a pizza.'

Valuable data

Basically, CutWise is an estimating and purchasing system all in one. Fully automated, highly accurate and, above all, highly scalable. The beauty is: users can get started with the software as early as the design phase. An AutoCAD drawing, for example, can easily be uploaded into the system and edited online. 'At any time, the software calculates the price,' Bakschik explains. 'If you first want 10 parts and later still want 100, the price is adjusted in real time. Of course, we get an incredible amount of valuable data from CutWise. For example, we can accurately predict our purchasing needs based on the calculations, among other things.'

Two years of intensive work on the software. A period of testing, adapting, retesting and, above all, listening carefully to customers and discovering where their real needs lie. With results, because currently CutWise already has some 4,000 active users, "Every day an average of fifteen new users are added," Bakschik emphasizes. 'The system works so well that since January 1, 2023, we guarantee customers 100% delivery reliability. If the agreed delivery date is not met, the parts are free.'

Go-getter

It may sound like one big success story. Yet, as is often the case in the entrepreneurial world, BMTEC's path in the first few years was not exactly a bed of roses. In the beginning I didn't get very far and I noticed that as an entrepreneur in the manufacturing industry I still had a lot to learn. But I am a go-getter by nature. I don't step back easily. The harder I have to fight, the more motivated I become. That perseverance has been given an extra boost by my past.'

Bakschik grew up in an Armenian family and left Russia for the Netherlands with his mother and brother in 2001. His father had arrived three years earlier and had a residence permit. The rest of the Martirosian family did not. 'We were illegal for 12 years and stayed in an asylum seekers' center,' he says. 'In that long and hectic period of litigation, I always had to be very flexible. At the same time, I was constantly thinking in solutions with my parents, who did not speak good Dutch. If there is a problem, I learned, there has to be a key somewhere. That key is just not in front of you. You really have to make an effort to find it. That mindset has also brought me a lot as an entrepreneur.

Underestimated market

He studied Mechanical Engineering at Stenden University of Applied Sciences in Emmen. There Bakschik was first introduced to laser cutting technology and the possibilities of plastics. He was immediately impressed. 'There is virtually no device imaginable that does not contain plastic parts,' he argues. 'And with a laser cutting machine you can cut the most diverse shapes from plastic sheets with extreme precision. Compared to metals such as aluminum, steel or copper, for example, plastic is more wear-resistant, more moisture-resistant, lighter in weight and easier to clean. However, I felt that companies still knew too little about plastic and its numerous applications. It was, in other words, an underestimated market. As a techie with a keen interest in manufacturing processes, I wanted to change that.'

Scaling up

While still a student, he started BMTEC from his bedroom in 2013. What did he envision with the company back then? 'Actually exactly what we are doing now. I wanted to set up a company that could produce very flexibly. Even then I saw that mass production is slowly disappearing and the focus is more and more on short series. So to be successful you have to be able to produce competitively from as little as one piece. And yes, innovation is pure necessity then.'

Since 2020, BMTEC has also been active in Germany, Europe's largest market in the field of laser cutting. An office branch was even opened at our eastern neighbors a short time later. In Rheine, to be exact. 'That's going very well,' Bakschik says. 'We are scaling up considerably there. Already the turnover in Germany is higher than that in the Netherlands. That's just the beginning. Our goal is to eventually dominate all of Europe with plastic sheet metal processing. With CutWise obviously as our main asset.'