Hopfgartner has a large expertise in sales and knows the company since its foundation. Prior to joining Nextsense in 2009 as International Sales Manager, he worked as a consultant where Nextsense was amongst his customers. During the last seven years he was in charge of the worldwide acquisition of customers and sales partners and took over the representation of Franz Schiep. "For us, Harald Hopfgartner is the ideal candidate for this position," says Clemens Gasser, CEO of NEXTSENSE GmbH. "Because of his unique expert knowledge and experience, he creates added value for Nextsense."

Braving the niche
Beside the worldwide distribution of the measurement devices, Hopfgartner is responsible for the strategy development of Sales and Marketing. The consistent growth – within nine years, the workforce of Nextsense grew from four to more than 50 employees – will be continued with Hopfgartner. "By 2020 we want our turnover to be tripled. In addition, we intent to increase our number of employees to a total of 150”, Hopfgartner emphasizes the goals of Nextsense. For him, the key to success is a consistent market and customer orientation. "The most important thing is to meet the expectations of our customers with our unique products. To achieve this objectives, we don´t want to swim with the tide, we still want to focus on niche markets. I look forward to the challenge and the ambitious growth plans."

In the footsteps of Franz Schiep
The new Sales & Marketing Director is succeeding Franz Schiep, who retired in the beginning of 2016. However, he continues to work as a consultant for Nextsense. "Franz Schiep established a highly successful and customer-oriented sales network during his time at Nextsense. This success is confirmed by the above-average company growth. We thank him for his commitment and wish him all the best", says Clemens Gasser.

About NEXTSENSE
NEXTSENSE GmbH is a global leader in producing and distributing revolutionary solutions for profile measurement and surface inspection. All solutions are based on non-contact measurement technology which captures unbiased measurement data removing all outside variables based on differences between operators or environmental conditions. Nextsense devices, called CALIPRI and SURFILES, are used for gap and flush measurement of automotive bodies, wear measurement of railway wheelsets and analyzing the surfaces of rolled steel. The customer list ranges from well-known railway operators and their suppliers (e.g. DB, SNCF and Bombardier) to international enterprises in the automotive, steel and technology sectors such as Daimler, ArcelorMittal and Miele. With an export quota of beyond 90 percent and sales partnerships in more than 30 countries, the high-tech company Nextsense is a truly global player.