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          Business View Magazine
        
        
          company he founded with its constant passion to in-
        
        
          novate. (Only last year, Manfred applied for five new
        
        
          patents.) Corma invests heavily in research and devel-
        
        
          opment, and lately its focus is on sustainability and
        
        
          creating more “green” machinery and practices. While
        
        
          Stefan is quick to point out that, “our machines are
        
        
          very, very energy efficient,” the company is aware that
        
        
          “the market is turning towards using a lot of recycled
        
        
          material, such as post-industrial scrap, that our cus-
        
        
          tomers would like to be able to use in the pipes. So
        
        
          we have to develop technologies to be able to use and
        
        
          process that material.”
        
        
          Competition in the corrugated pipe machine manufac-
        
        
          turing industry is from a small number of competitors,
        
        
          primarily from Europe and China. But Corma is the
        
        
          most well-known company around. Still, it continues to
        
        
          seek out new customers, mainly by attending various
        
        
          trade shows around the globe. This year, the company
        
        
          has already sent delegations to several U.S. cities, In-
        
        
          dia, Colombia, Brazil, China, Europe, and Mexico. And
        
        
          Stefan enjoys the travel. “It’s really exciting. It keeps
        
        
          everything fresh when you meet people from different
        
        
          countries and cultures and you have to try and under-
        
        
          stand the psychology of different markets.”
        
        
          Corma Inc. is also a very involved community citizen.
        
        
          Stefan Lupke
        
        
          , Vice President