The Payer Group is an international player in various business areas – from medical products to consumer healthcare
Eduard Payer wanted to develop the world’s best men’s razor when he founded the company in 1946. Today, with locations in Europe and Asia, the Payer Group supplies a wide and varied range of high-quality products and services all over the world. Michael Viet was already working for the Payer Group in management positions from 1995 to 2006. After an excursion into the mining industry, he returned to Styria in 2019 as CEO and gives an overview of the group with its diverse areas of activity.
![](http://weltmeister.cc/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Michael-Viet-1024x683.png)
© Oliver Wolf
What is it like to work in a castle?
Michael Viet: For me it is a privilege to work in such a beautiful
location in western Styria. Of course, it is also charming to be able
to sit in a castle. Our employees are also proud to work at such a
beautiful location. Furthermore, customers and guests who visit us
tell us that they are impressed by the location with the castle in the
beautiful hilly landscape in combination with state-of-the-art technology
and a modern infrastructure. Payer’s headquarters is the
Buschenschlössl Sonneck, west of Graz. The history of the castle
can be traced back to the 14th century. In 1951, Eduard Payer
bought the Buschenschlössl and made it the headquarters of the
Payer Group in 1952.
You come from a management position in the mining industry.
Are there parallels to medical technology?
Viet: These are two very different industries. One area that is very
important in both and needs to be driven is innovation. At Payer,
we also work with world market leaders, which is why we, as a
strategic partner, have to constantly develop and focus on technology
and innovation to not only meet but also exceed our customers’
requirements. Another parallel I see is people. They are our most
important resource – each and every one of them contributes to the
sustainable success of the company. Therefore, it is of great importance
to get the best minds and to promote and develop them as well as to give them responsibility to be an attractive employer. This
allows us to work together for many years, learn from each other
and grow together.
![](http://weltmeister.cc/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/PAYER_Headquarter_1-1024x481.png)
© Oliver Wolf
Why has the Payer Group focused on products
for medical technology in recent years?
Viet: We originally started in the field of electric
men’s razors and gradually expanded our portfolio
in the personal care sector, for example with
women’s razors and epilators. With our existing
know-how and our decades of experience in the
field of consumer goods, we saw a potential new
market and a strategically important step in
medical technology more than ten years ago.
Since then, we have focused on medical technology
at our Austrian headquarters, the technology
and innovation centre of the Payer Group, and have aligned our
infrastructure very strongly with this.
Which medical products are we talking about here?
Viet: We are active in the markets of diagnostics (PCR analysis,
blood-gas analysis, platelet analysis), patient support (respiratory
systems, patient monitoring), surgery (laparoscopy) and consumer
health (mother & child care, oral care).
In all areas, depending on
the project requirements, we produce either devices, modules or components (consumables or microfluidics).
With our many years of highly developed experience,
we have established ourselves as one of
the most important suppliers of highly complex
and process-safe medical fluidics and consumables.
From rapid prototyping and small-scale
production with scale-up capability to automated
high-volume production, we apply our expertise
in single- and multi-component injection
moulding, combining different materials and
technologies for an excellent product in more
than 20 million consumables produced per year.
In addition, we use our experience and expertise for fluidic parts
with an extremely low volume of fluids such as blood, plasma and
other body fluids, coupled with optimised flow dynamics.
![](http://weltmeister.cc/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Arbeiten-im-Grauraum-1024x683.png)
© Oliver Wolf
Your website directly addresses the “incredibly wide range of
products” you develop and manufacture. Can you give an overview
of the most important products in development?
Viet: On the one hand, we are active in the healthcare and medical
sector, primarily at our Styrian headquarters, and on the other hand consumer goods business sector. Consumer
goods is a very broad area, which is why we
concentrate on the categories that follow. We
have been able to complete countless projects
with renowned companies, including world market
leaders, with whom we have been maintaining
strategic partnerships in the various areas
for decades. These include shaving, grooming,
epilating and styling such as hair and beard
trimmers, beauty care (e.g. facial brushes),
household appliances such as cleaning devices
and lifestyle products such as products for outdoor
sports.
What are your top sellers?
Viet: Grooming and styling is one of our core areas and we have
been noticing an increased market trend for several years. Especially
multi-grooming kits with different cutting attachments for hair
removal all over the body are very popular. Every year, we produce
around ten million ready-to-sell packaged products for global players
![](http://weltmeister.cc/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Haendische-Qualitaetskontrolle-683x1024.png)
© Oliver Wolf
You support customers in the development of their products,
from design to the production site. How does this process work?
Viet: We offer our customers a holistic solution. We serve a large
number of international brands as a one-stop shop, from development
to the finer details of the production process, including assembly
and packaging, and cover the entire value chain. In addition, it
is also possible for our customers to enter a process step in our
value chain at a later stage. After the acquisition, the product is of
course designed and developed by our development department in
constant exchange with the customer. After the first qualitative
tests with prototypes, our industrial engineering department takes
care of making the respective product producible. In addition, the
required moulding tool is designed and built. Depending on the
customer’s requirements and the project, we assemble various
parts manually, semi-automatically or fully automatically into a
module or product and package it.
As CEO, isn’t it difficult to reconcile so many fields of activity?
Viet: For me, it is important to always keep the focus in sight. We
have a clear strategic focus on our core businesses, where we strive
together as a global team to be the best in everything we do. This is also reflected in our vision “One Player to be
Number One”. It makes me very proud that we
were able to fulfill this ambition and the intrinsic
drive of our employees last year with a great
success, a special award from Procter & Gamble.
In November 2022, we were named “Partner of
the Year” in the “Grooming” category.
After Hungary and China, you opened a new
location in Malaysia this year. What are your
expectations and what role will it play in the
Payer Group in the future?
Viet: In order to secure our company’s success
in the long term, we rely on a diversified and effective location
strategy. In addition to our strong presence in Europe and the use
of synergies, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of our Chinese
location this year. Being able to continue to act and react in a resilient,
agile and resistant manner, especially in today’s world full of
uncertainties and volatile conditions, we made the strategic decision
in 2021 to also strengthen Asia with the “China+1” concept,
with an additional location in Malaysia. An important aspect of this
is also to respond even more flexibly to our customers’ requirements
and to lay the foundation for further growth.
![](http://weltmeister.cc/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Einstellen-einer-Maschine-Automatisierte-Assemblage-1024x683.png)
© Oliver Wolf
What is your opinion on the current discussion of becoming less
dependent on China?
Viet: As already mentioned, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of
our Chinese location this year. After the takeover by the Hui family
in 2002, this logical step was taken very quickly for Payer with a
location in Asia. The production site is equipped with the most
modern machines, and in recent years many areas have been fully
automated. This shows that China continues to be strategically
very important for the Payer Group. Of course, we are watching
geopolitical developments very closely. Basically, we see that we
have a sustainably stable and successful basis with the China and
Malaysia concept.
What are the reasons for keeping the headquarters in Austria?
Wouldn’t it be more cost-effective at one of your locations in Asia?
Viet: Our Austrian headquarters is also the technology and innovation
centre of the group. Since technological progress and innovative
solutions at all levels play an important role in a successful
industrial company, we have also invested heavily in the location
over the last three years – a total of around 20 million euros. This
has included the expansion of the production facilities specialising
in medical technology, the extension of the cutting competence
centre, the modernisation of the laboratory and testing infrastructure,
the redesign of the offices and meeting rooms, and the creation
of new work areas through redesigns. In addition, we were
able to win a major project in the “Consumer Health” sector in
2022, through which we built a new production area with around
500 square metres of manufacturing space. In this area, we also
set up a fully automated plant recently.
Due to our constant growth, personnel has a high priority as the
most important company resource. The number of employees in
Styria has increased by 20 per cent in the last two years. In Styria,
we also appreciate the proximity to top universities and colleges.
We now have very good relationships and many cooperations and
implement projects in various areas, such as product development,
sustainability or employer branding. We see the combination of
theoretical knowledge with a breath of fresh air and our experience
with practical knowledge as very valuable. In addition, we are of
course pleased if we can offer some people an exciting job in our
company during or after completing their studies.