Marketing professional with insight

He visited the PSI for the first time at the age of nine, aged thirteen he registered his first patent for a torch: The CEO of Macma, Matthias Huff. ?At the time we called the torch the HUFFlamp. It was a great feeling registering the first patent. The flashlight was equipped with a return spring, which snapped back preventing the battery from running out,? recalls Huff. Today, something which is no doubt taken for granted, but at the time it was a small hit. Their early interest in promotional products is not surprising, since the two brothers who own Macma, Christian and Matthias Huff, grew up with the fascination for promotional products: Their grandmother, Fr?nzy Huff, already opened up a gift item business in Bochum in 1958, which later became a promotional products distributor. Obviously both of the brothers managed to successfully channel the sense for promotional products and trends, they had developed at such an early age. Matthias Huff: ?We started off with five people and in the meantime we employ over 500 people worldwide. Our plan seems to have taken off.? Macma disposes of warehousing space measuring 20,000 m? with a capacity for approx. 40,000 palette storage places throughout Europe. Alone the warehouse in Nuremberg (12,000 m?) offers approx. 25,000 palette storage places. The full-service provider has subsidiaries in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Hungary and South Africa as well as an office in Hong Kong and most recently also in Australia. The office in Hong Kong, which is run by son Marc, is of particular importance. ?We purchase our goods directly from China and buy at the trade shows in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. It is therefore all the more important that we are present locally. Of course this makes the constant search for novelties and the quality control procedures much easier,? explained Matthias Huff, who also travels to China four times a year himself. The subsidiary Macma Ltd in Hong Kong was founded in October 2006, in August 2007 the new high-rack warehouse in Nuremberg started operating. Quality control is a vital aspect of the Macma philosophy and this is also strictly monitored in China. Macma is for example a REACH-certified company. But this alone does not suffice. All items are already checked several times in Hong Kong before being dispatched. ?We want to be a reliable, trusting partner for our customers. It is therefore of great importance that the goods don?t have any faults. If I keep saying to a Chinese manufacturer: ?Make me the item cheaper? and he keeps nodding, then I have to find someone else,? commented Matthias Huff, ?because at some point in time he has to tell me: ?Hold on, I can?t deliver the necessary quality at this price?.? The two brothers were hardly affected by the financial crisis: ?The crisis wasn?t a nice affair for anyone, but precisely during this difficult period we were able to underline our value as a strong partner. Thanks to our warehousing options we didn?t have half as many problems and were still able to deliver, which gave us a decisive advantage over our competitors. We lived from our ability to delivery,? explained Christian Huff.