In a good position for the upcoming year – Wanzl is securing major orders for 2014

Leipheim (pm). At the end of 2013, Wanzl invited 135 co-workers from the Leipheim and Kirchheim plants and their partners to an evening of celebrations at the Landgasthof Waldvogel country hotel in Leipheim. The occasion was in honour of those who had worked for the company for either 40, 25 or 10 years and to say farewell to employees soon to be embarking on their retirement. The musical entertainment for the evening was provided by Leipheim's city band, the Stadtkapelle Leipheim, and the Chorgemeinschaft CHORleriker choir. 

Managing partner of the Wanzl Group Gottfried Wanzl gave a welcome to the guests, retirees and management staff present. "Traditionally, we get together on the second Friday in December to celebrate alongside long-serving, deserving Wanzl co-workers. Today is not first and foremost about the company's operations; we should be focussing far more on interpersonal relationships instead.” He warmly thanked both the employees celebrating their anniversaries with the company and the employees entering retirement for their decades of loyalty to Wanzl. Gottfried Wanzl took the celebration as an opportunity for brief retrospection on the current financial year that is drawing to a close, and to look ahead to 2014.   

Autumn sees a rise in demand

The first months of 2013 were relatively quiet at Wanzl in terms of revenue. Wanzl looked excitedly to autumn, which usually brings an increase in incoming orders. "The autumn revival really kicked in in the months of September and October and demanded a high degree of engagement and flexibility from our co-workers," reported Gottfried Wanzl. This was due to customers both inland and abroad, who ordered and awaited their deliveries before the Christmas season trading boom set in. In 2013, Wanzl was also able to complete the reconstruction of its electroplating plant (Plant 4) in Leipheim as planned, which had been completely destroyed by a major fire in February 2012. The latest electroplating line will open in 2014.  

Key orders for 2014

Wanzl started this year with a positive outlook and a high number of orders. From 2014, 12,000 luggage trolleys will be delivered to London Heathrow airport; Wanzl closed a deal with Tesco, the largest British retail chain and third-largest retail dealer in the world, for the delivery of shopping trolleys for 4,000 stores in six European countries, as well as in Turkey. "We have just been awarded the contract from Deutsche Post for the delivery of over 10,000 transport containers. An important criterion for all orders was the tried and tested product quality from Wanzl, for which our co-workers are responsible.” Wanzl is eagerly awaiting a highlight of the year in February, when EuroShop will invite visitors from all over the globe to Düsseldorf for the international trade fair that takes place every three years. The Wanzl Arena, one of the largest trade fair stands, will exhibit with the motto "Retail_MADE BY WANZL". On the central playing field and in the stands alongside, Wanzl will sprint to sporting glory and showcase its current product range for 2014 to the international trade market. On the athletics track in the Wanzl Arena, visitors can learn more about the innovative world of Wanzl.  

Maintaining a good business climate

Gottfried Wanzl then looked back at when the employees celebrating their anniversaries joined the company 40, 25 and 10 years ago. In 1973, the year of the first global oil crisis and when the ban on heavy vehicles travelling on Sundays came into force, Wanzl developed incredibly quickly and successfully. Turnover was 30 million euros, turnover growth was 30% and the number of co-workers rose from 520 to 550. In 1988, 15 years later, turnover had quadrupled to 120 million euros and Wanzl was employing 1,200 staff throughout Germany. International turnover was an impressive 40% and 250 people worked at Wanzl's international branches. Another 15 years later in 2003, Wanzl was able to more than double its turnover from 1988 to 280 million euros. Annual turnover for the Wanzl company group currently stands at around 530 million euros. "Those were years of rapid growth and high employment rates," said Gottfried Wanzl, as he looked back over the high number of people celebrating significant work anniversaries in 2013. He expressed his heartfelt thanks to the co-workers for their many years of loyalty and commitment. "Today, we are well prepared for future challenges and can speak with confidence about job security. This development is, to a large extent, thanks to your efforts. Your reliability and your knowledge create stability and safety and provide the foundation, structure and backbone of Wanzl.” Gottfried Wanzl emphasised that maintaining a good business climate ensured both successful co-operation in the workplace and coherence in the company group, both at home and abroad. At the same time he wished the 23 employees taking their well-earned retirement "health, vitality and many happy years spent with your families". Gottfried Wanzl was particularly delighted that the town of Leipheim decided to rename Bubesheimer Straße to Rudolf-Wanzl-Straße at the beginning of 2014. "Sixty-six years ago, my father began to construct the company here – a stroke of luck for Leipheim and for all of us that are gathered here today.” Josef Salger, Chairman of the General Works Council at Wanzl, expressed his thanks for the celebration. He confirmed the high level of co-worker satisfaction within the Wanzl workforce as well as the mutual respect and recognition between general management and co-workers. "Company loyalty lasting 10, 25, 40 years and longer is seldom found in the workplace today. However, qualified, long-serving co-workers are exactly what stable and successful companies need.
 

Successful new starters

Guests at the Wanzl end-of-year celebration also included new staff who completed their training with the company in 2013, accompanied by their trainers. "We are well prepared for future challenges thanks to our successful new starters," Gottfried Wanzl reinforced. Of the 29 graduates, 14 achieved a grade of between 1 and 1.9, nine of whom even achieved between 1.0 and 1.5. Gottfried Wanzl congratulated the young staff and their trainers for these outstanding achievements.

Farewells were said to the following employees from Wanzl in Leipheim entering retirement:

Thomas Frei, Viktor Günter, Berthold Herrmann, Robert-Franz Hofstetter, Wolfgang Kalmbach, Kurt Kinzelmann, Claudia Kübel, Walter Lasshofer, Alexandr Litvin, Herbert Mayer, Nikolaj Obermann, Rudolf Oborowski, Zbigniew Orciuch, Fortunato Petrone, Hans Scheffler, Nelly Scheffner, Ursula Scheuch, Franz Schneider, Irmtraud Schön, Eberhard Thielsch   
 

Employees celebrating anniversaries at Wanzl in Leipheim:

40 years

Lore Garro-Kriz, Sieglinde Kampert, Martin Schiffelholz  

25 years

Alisen Acar, Thomas Allgaier, Petra Baumeister, Margit Biberacher, Dieter Blaich, Özdemir Celepci, Durgut Cemrek, Joachim Daniel, Herbert Dirr, Petra Doriat-Winterhalter, Holger Egly, Agnes Engenhart, Erwin Englet, Sebahattin Eraslan, Herbert Feustle, Petra Fiedler, Claus Geiger, Gerhard Häfele, Jürgen Hämmerle, Ernst Hanger, Peter Hartmann, Dietmar Hörsch, Bilal Kahraman, Markus Kast, Karl-Heinz Keil, Herwald Kunz, Georg Lattka, Jürgen Lenzer, Bettina Maccario, Dieter Mengele, Georg Niederwieser, Adolf Nistler, Joachim Österle, Hans-Jürgen Pröbstle, Herbert Sailer, Johann Sauter, Lutz Schrödter, Roland Striebel, Rainer Terk, Ali Ucar, Marion Weiss, Hermann Winkler, Thomas Wolke, Heinrich Zimmermann   
 

10 years

Christian Martin Ammicht, Sergej Beskerov, Benjamin Bittner, Denis Bittner, Lukas Broll, Horst Eberhardinger, Murat Erkan, Kerstin Fraas, Maik Gerdsmann, Andrej Hafner, Lutz Händler, Simone Held, Viktor Holderbein, Christina Hummer, Markus Hupfauer, Elke Kerler, Cesur Kursun, Shkelzen Maliqi, Torsten Menck, Daniel Miller, Ralf Müller, Eugen Oborowski, Patrick Proske, Pasqualino Reitenauer, Philipp Roth, Hubert Ruf, Stefan Scherzinger, Ralph Schmid, Viktor Schmidt, Daniel Schmidt, Florian Schnapp, Waldemar Schuck, Michael Schunk, Roger Wege, Nico Zieb

The managing partner of the Wanzl company group Gottfried Wanzl and the Managing Directors of Wanzl, Harald P. Dörenbach, Frank Derks and Bernhard Renzhofer (second row, from left) as well as the Chairman of the General Works Council Josef Salger (second row, third from right), together with other management staff, honoured the long-serving and deserved co-workers. The photograph shows them with employees who have been working at Leipheim for 40 or 25 years.