So one Sunday in the late 1990s, Sales Director Wolfgang Haschke and Design Manager Burkhard Reploh made their way to southern Germany to place an order. They took the last plane from Dortmund to Munich, where they were picked up by the Haver representative for southern Germany. When they arrived at their hotel around midnight, they were delighted to enjoy a plate of snacks and a wheat beer from the attentive hotelier. The evening ended on a high note and the gentlemen were eagerly awaiting the award of the contract the next morning.
It was an early start again, as they were expected at the family-run cement plant at 8 o’clock. A representative of the company received them.
Immediately after the greeting, he declared: “The order won’t happen today.” Disappointment spread among the HB sales staff. So as not to have come in vain, they asked to see a Haver packing machine installed years ago in operation. And so they did. Basically, however, they were extremely disappointed that they had to start their return journey without an order. As they subsequently learned that the Plant Management had held a meeting with the owner at the weekend, they suspected that the owner had not released the money for the investment as expected.
