Boyd in Lower Saxony: "Nobody knows us, but we save the world"

Created: 12/21/2021, 10:17 PM

Boyd makes adhesive tapes, O-rings and stamped parts from all kinds of non-metallic materials in Syke.

No sexy products, but things without which no sexy product works.

© Jantje Ehlers

Syke in Lower Saxony is the seat of a successful traditional company.

Leading location in Europe, largest private employer and nobody knows Boyd.

Syke - Imagine that you manage a successful traditional company, are one of the largest private employers in the area and practically nobody takes any notice.

Stephan Bernstorff does it like that.

He is works manager at Boyd on Rudolf-Diesel-Straße in Syke in Lower Saxony and he says: "No one knows us, but we save the world."

Well, at least at Boyd in the industrial park they go a long way towards making it spin.

And that is currently ensured by around 140 employees.

Boyd Syke: a traditional company with a 100-year history and an eventful company past

Boyd Syke is a traditional company in two respects: Boyd is almost 100 years old.

The plant in Syke is one of the newer pieces of the mosaic in the overall picture, but it has also existed for almost 60 years.

Günther Balkhausen founded the company in the 1960s, managed it for decades and then passed it on to his children.

No car goes without us.

Stephan Bernstorff, Plant Manager at Boyd Syke

The owner-run family business was later bought up by the American company Brady, and Brady in turn by Boyd.

Of the 30 or so plants that Boyd operates worldwide, Syke is one of the smaller locations, but the largest in Europe and it is set to continue to grow.

Boyd Syke in Lower Saxony: "Because we don't make sexy products" - "But without us, no cell phone works, and without us there is no car."

But why does nobody know the shop?

“Because we don't make sexy products,” says Bernstorff.

"But no cell phone works without us and no car drives without us."

This is where protective films are made for displays that replace conventional dashboards in cars.

© Jantje Ehlers

What Boyd does in Syke are adhesive tapes, O-rings and stamped parts made from all kinds of non-metallic materials.

For example, heat dissipators for cell phones.

Or safety pins that become active if the fuse blows.

Not at home at the electricity meter, but in the large control cabinet in an industrial company.

They produce protective films for displays.

And wound pads for plasters in clinic and care needs.

Boyd Syke makes mundane parts and yet they are built in tens of millions all over the world

Stephan Bernstorff pulls another classic from the past out of the sample case: a strip of soft plastic perhaps two or three millimeters wide and about the length of a palm, coated on one side with a kind of artificial carpet.

“The dust cover for the slot on the CD player on the car radio,” he explains.

A very mundane part.

But built in tens of millions in car radios around the world.

Made in Syke.

“The customer comes to us and says: I need a part, it has to look like this and be able to do it.

And then our engineers go out and develop it for him, ”explains Stephan Bernstorff.

“Then there is a first material sample, the customer tries it out and gives feedback.

We can do that in Syke, from prototype to series production. "

Problems with the youngsters due to a lack of awareness - “Daimler, at Airbus, at Siemens.

Nobody has us on the screen. "

The plant manager finds it annoying that hardly anyone outside of the industry has the name ready.

This is a real problem for his HR manager, Axel Palkowski.

Especially when looking for new blood.

“Where do young people apply when they are looking for an apprenticeship?

At Daimler, at Airbus, at Siemens.

Nobody has us on their radar. ”Boyd trains warehouse logisticians and system operators.

For personal use.

Quality control in a particularly dust-protected clean room.

© Jantje Ehlers

In other words: The takeover after the apprenticeship is the declared goal.

And the perspective is a pretty crisis-proof job.

"We only touched on the subject of short-time work very briefly," says Palkowski, looking back on the effects of two corona lockdowns.

"Growth on healthy soil" - "We still have a nice meadow next door"

"Growth on healthy ground" is the motto for Stephan Bernstorff.

“We still have a nice meadow next door,” he says.

“We could easily double ourselves.

But not tomorrow.

And don't get out of there anyway. "

In mid-October Boyd took over a company in the Allgäu.

“Boyd is buying Siltec” was the headline in the specialist magazines.

“It was not the group that bought the plant,” says Bernstorff, “but we.

Boyd GmbH Syke. “Siltec is a specialist in silicone parts.

The purchase gives Syke a broader portfolio.

Stephan Bernstorff: "At some point the new plant will be subordinate to the European Headquarters" - which does not yet exist.

And he has high hopes that Syke will.

“That is currently under discussion.

Syke would be a realistic possibility. ”But Bernstorff remains cautious:“ We have just laid the first two or three stones.

We'll see what the finished house will look like in the end. ”But:“ When it comes to European growth, Syke will play a central role. ”

And the new nationwide corona rules, the warning level 3 in Lower Saxony and the lockdown light from Christmas to after New Year's Eve as well as a possible extension of the warning level 3 already mentioned will probably not change anything.

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