Boris Guedel

Location	Van Leeuwen France
Position	Technical & Supply Chain Manager
At Van Leeuwen since	2021
Age	31

Boris Guedel started as Technical & Supply Chain Manager at Van Leeuwen France in Lyon in September 2021. Although he has only been working at Van Leeuwen for a short period of time, he is very impressed by the company’s entrepreneurial spirit. ‘Moreover, the lines are short, which makes it possible for us to quickly convert good ideas into concrete actions for our customers.’

Boris Guedel is 31 years old, but already has an interesting international career behind him. For example, he worked in the Middle East as Deputy Maintenance Manager for a company that is using desalination plants to convert sea saltwater into fresh water. In addition, he was employed by a globally operating manufacturer of copper conductors for electrical equipment as Continuous Improvement Manager and Supply Chain Manager. This international experience serves him well in his job as Technical & Supply Chain Manager at Van Leeuwen. His home base is in Lyon, France, where Van Leeuwen serves a wide range of customers on the French market from its more than 23,000 m² distribution center.

Successes

‘The customers of Van Leeuwen France operate in many different segments and their demands vary greatly,’ says Boris. ‘But because of our intensive cooperation with suppliers who are able to manufacture the pipes and tubes precisely in accordance with the customer’s specifications, we time and again perfectly succeed in meeting these demands.’

Boris is clear about his most important task as Technical & Supply Chain Manager: to ensure that his team of more than 35 dedicated and driven employees works together as a single team in order to provide customers with the best possible service. ‘I have been working here for six months now and have already achieved a couple of successes together with the team. We have improved project management by introducing new working routines with more precise objectives and deadlines. This way we work even better together, we have improved product delivery times and optimized the supply chain. Everyone likes to lend a helping hand to serve our customers effectively.’

The customer always takes center stage

In his view, the committed and passionate employees to a large extent determine the company’s success. ‘In France too there are colleagues who have been with the company for several decades. Once they have joined the company, employees are not likely to leave. Understandable, because here they are given every opportunity to grow on a personal as well as business level. For example, through additional training and advancing in their career within the company.’

Boris also notes that at Van Leeuwen the customer always takes center stage. The companies within the group work closely together to serve the customer as effectively as possible. ‘For example, recently we solved a problem in France for a customer of our branch in Sweden. The pipes were transported to France and in a very short period of time we cut the tubes to size and carried out the quality inspection. We then shipped the pipes directly to the customer.’