Extrusion International 3-2026

38 Extrusion International 3/2026 CORONA TREATMENT – INTERVIEW Building on a Legend Eighteen months after his appointment as CEO at Vetaphone A/S, Michael Behrens spoke with Nick Coombes about his role and responsibility to build on the foundation laid by the Eisby family in pioneering surface treatment technology. Nick Coombes: You became CEO of Vetaphone in late 2024. What was your rst impression of the role? Michael Behrens: From day one, I knew I was stepping into more than just a job title. It was clear that this role is about stewardship as much as leadership. Vetaphone is a family-owned company built on engineering excellence and a strong sense of responsibility to the industry, and that heritage sets a clear direction for how the com- pany should be led. NC: You are the rst non-family CEO. How does that inuence your leadership approach? MB: Continuity is essential. I am the rst non-family CEO, but Frank and Jan Eisby remain actively in- volved through the Management Board. My role is therefore not to reinvent the company, but to build on its strengths by adding structure, scale, and momentum while pre- serving Vetaphone’s unique DNA. NC: What stood out to you when you joined the company? MB: What impressed me most was the pride and professionalism across the organisation. From engi- neering and production to sales and support, there is a shared focus on delivering the right solution for the customer rather than simply ship- ping equipment. Surface treatment is evolving fast – higher running speeds, more data, more consis- tency and less downtime. We must be able to respond to these chang- es. It’s important that we continue to listen carefully to our customers so that we can provide premium products and service in what is an ever-increasingly competitive mar- ketplace. NC: How do you de ne your main responsibility as CEO? MB: My responsibility is to en- sure that Vetaphone continues to perform and grow as a truly global business. Today we serve custom- ers in more than 75 countries, sup- ported by around 100 employees across seven countries. Equally important is our global agent net- work, which plays a critical role in our success by providing strong lo- cal presence, application expertise, and long-term customer relation- ships, all backed by Vetaphone’s core know-how. NC: How does Vetaphone stay ahead in such a competitive and fast-moving market? MB: We stay ahead by delivering far more than a corona treatment unit. Our role is to provide the know-how that ensures custom- ers get the right solution the rst time, based on their speci c ap - plication and production require- ments. We build on more than 75 years of experience by continu- ously improving our technology – smarter electronics, better energy ef ciency, and systems that are safer and easier to operate. Equally important is our ability to support customers locally, with service and support available 24/7/365. This en- ables predictive maintenance and continuous optimisation, so our customers’ production always runs reliably and ef ciently. NC: Knowledge sharing seems to be a recurring theme. Why is that important? MB: Knowledge sharing is inte- gral to our role as the original inven- tor of corona treatment technology. Vetaphone pioneered the corona technology that is used worldwide today, and that position carries both authority and responsibility. Over decades, we have built unmatched application and process knowledge, and we consider it our obligation to de ne best practice and share that expertise with our customers – so they achieve stable production, consistent quality, and long-term operational performance. NC: How are you preparing Veta- phone for future growth? MB: We invest continuously in tools, processes, and people to en- sure we can scale in a controlled and predictable way. At the same time, ESG and sustainability remain priori- ties, and we use Ecovadis as a struc- tured framework to measure and improve our performance. NC: What does long-term success look like for Vetaphone under your leadership? MB: For me, it’s about building a company that can scale without los- ing its character - that can continue to lead the way in surface treatment and build a business that is ready for the future, not just the next or- der. My goal is to keep Vetaphone the most reliable name in surface treatment for our customers, our partners, and those who work here. We have the heritage, the technol- ogy and the people. The future is not about changing what we are, it’s about becoming even more of what makes us special. I’m proud to lead Vetaphone into its next chap- ter, and even prouder of the team that makes this possible every day. Vetaphone A/S Fabriksvej 11, 6000 Kolding, Denmark www.vetaphone.com Michael Behrens is the rst non Eisby-family CEO of Vetaphone