The people behind Mach4Metal | Laura Lochner

She speaks German fluently, but she can switch to Dutch of English in a heartbeat. For Laura Lochner, sales person at Mach4Metal, this is no big deal. "One minute, I'm arranging an export license for someone in South Korea, the next one I'm on a phone call with a German customer. Yes, I travel all over the world, but I do it from my own workplace here in Babberich", she says with a laugh. It's time to introduce her!

When you contact Mach4Metal, there is a very good chance that Laura will speak to you. That's because she's the first point of contact for customers. She arranges the purchase and sale of machines, takes cares of aftersales, arranges export and much more. "I arrived at Mach4Metal through the owner, Bastiaan. He was looking for someone with a German background who could work part-time. Coincidentally, he knew my parents and that is how he ended up with me."

Ten years of service

And that turned out to be a successful move, because the born and bred German has been working at Mach4Metal for ten years now. "I started with twelve hours a week, but that soon became more. The company grew and more and more customers around the world got to know us, and I grew with them", Laura looks back.

From cars to machines

Before Laura started at Mach4Metal, she worked as a car salesperson at a BMW car dealer. "That's also a real man's world, yes, haha. But it just really appeals to me. I feel completely at home in the machine trade. Not only because I love technology, but also because the machine industry is constantly moving. Machines are constantly being added and new technologies follow each other one after the other. This keeps it exciting at all times!"

Lots of changes

"You want an example? Take the CNC-controlled machines; ten years ago these were quite ordinary, because you rarely saw them. But that also meant we had to train our colleagues to be able to work with CNC machines. Now that's something you can hardly imagine, because nowadays almost all machines have a CNC control."

Ten shipping containers

The thing that Laura likes most about her work? She doesn't have to think long about that: "I have contact with people from all over the world, that makes my job so special. And my work is also very diversified. As a sales person I take care of absolutely everything that's involved in buying and selling second-hand machines. For example, I recently organized the transport for a Skoda Kotterbank that was sold to a foreign customer. That machine was so big that it had to be transported in ten shipping containers!”

A machine in the backyard

The range of used machines at Mach4Metal changes regularly, but there is one machine that Laura won't forget soon. "That's the Waldrich Portal Mill, a super-large machine that weighs no less than 450,000 tons. I can still vividly remember the moment that this machine entered our warehouse, it was just wow! It's still with us, by the way, and I secretly hope that this machine will never be sold, haha. It's 'my' machine after all, you know. And if we do have to get rid of it, it would look great in my backyard!"

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