The MAN Bus Modification Center (BMC) in Plauen opened the doors to its new interiors showroom in April, meaning customers can now put together all custom interior fittings for their bus directly on site. All manner of upholstery fabric, floor coverings and decorative panelling for MAN and NEOPLAN buses can be found in the 60-square-metre customisation studio. “Customers have the opportunity to see and touch the different options in person. This is particularly important when it comes to fabrics, where texture plays a decisive role,” explained André Körner, site manager of the MAN Bus Modification Center. “What’s more, it’s much easier to make the right choice if you’re looking at the materials in person, for example how cushions and floor coverings look together, and which interior fittings fit in with the company image or personal preferences.” Customers also receive comprehensive advice on all matters relating to design, comfort, furnishings and sense of space.
Showrooms have been featured for quite some time at the MAN Bus Forum in Munich, as well as the plants in Ankara, Turkey, and Starachowice in Poland, where they are popular amongst customers. The initiative for the establishment of and transformation into an interiors and paint sample studio came from the Sales Support Bus & Interior department. Thanks to their many years of experience in this respect, specific concepts for the design of the showrooms came primarily from Sigrun Riederer-Hegemann and Birgit Schneider, who work at the MAN Bus Forum in Munich where they advise customers about interior design for buses. They are also part of the team that puts together the annual collections that are featured in the showrooms. Armed with their expertise, Gabriela Fabeck, architect at MAN Truck & Bus, developed and designed the furniture for presenting the samples, just as in the existing studios. “With the new site we again put a lot of focus on making sure the showroom was clearly arranged, bright and modern. The aim was to ensure that customers intuitively find their way around and feel at ease here.”
The MAN Bus Modification Center in Plauen was established in 2015 and about 140 employees work there, fulfilling individual customer requests ranging from rear lounges to complete party buses, and even double-decker tour buses with 20 beds in the upper deck. “I’m very proud that we can now offer our customers a high-quality interior studio here as well, and that we can now carry out customer consultations based on the high MAN standards just like in Munich, Ankara and Starachowice,” says André Körner. “This is another step towards ensuring the customer is at the heart of our work.”
