Kärcher-EMEA-Oct12-Bro

K채rcher Steaming ahead

www.karcher.com

K채rcher

Steaming

ahead In spite of the world economic slowdown, global cleaning technology market leader K채rcher is achieving record sales and pursuing a strategy of expansion written by: Gay Sutton research by: Jon Bradley

Kärcher

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Kärcher cleaned the colonnades on St. Peter’s Square in Rome

leaning some of the world’s most iconic historic monuments is not only a technological and physical challenge but also a great responsibility. Over the last few decades the world leader in cleaning technology, Kärcher, has worked in partnership with organisations around the globe on heritage structures such as Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, the Statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro, the Colossi of Memnon in Egypt and St Peter’s Square in Rome.

In many of these cases, the company has assessed the challenges of the project and designed equipment specifically for the job. It is regularly asked to safely clean and restore precious architecture, removing everything from moss, mildew, dirt and sand to the effects of environmental pollution—a great demonstration of the creativity, adaptability and reliability of the company as an innovator of technology.

Kärcher, with its instantly recognisable bright yellow branding, is known worldwide for the design and manufacture of industrial and household cleaning technology, and yet when the company was first set up in Stuttgart in 1935 by the inventor and entrepreneur Alfred Kärcher, it was to pioneer new heating technology.

Alfred Kärcher was one of a group of engineering innovators that included Robert Bosch, Gottlieb Daimler and Count Zeppelin, who transformed the fortunes of the Wurttemberg region of Germany and created a thriving industrial centre in a region that possessed very little in the way

of natural resources. It was not until 1950 that Kärcher launched Europe’s first hot water high pressure industrial cleaner onto the market, and laid the foundations for the global cleaning business we know today.

Kärcher continues to be a family-owned company employing some 9,000 staff, managing 93 subsidiaries in 57 countries and a network of over 50,000 sales outlets and service centres in all countries around the world. Currently some 85 per cent of its turnover is generated outside of Germany, and that proportion is likely to rise as the company continues to expand its worldwide footprint.

With the rapidly changing world economic dynamics, Kärcher sees plenty of opportunities for introducing its products and services to new customers and is actively pursuing a strategy for growth.

The vision is to set up new sales subsidiaries in hitherto under-represented areas, and to take the product and after sales services directly to the customer.

This growth strategy has been effective.

In spite of the global slowdown of the last few years the company achieved a record turnover of €1.7 billion in 2011 and sold 8.25 million units—more than have been sold in any one year in the entire history of the

company. Much of this ongoing success can be attributed to the ethos of customer focused engineering and innovation that was originally laid down by the founder Alfred Kärcher.

“Everything at Kärcher revolves around the customer,” says Hartmut Jenner, chairman of the board of management.

“They provide the input as to which direction to take for innovation and corporate

“The customers provide the input as to which direction to take for innovation and corporate orientation”

Kärcher

Manufacturing of a scrubber drier at the Kärcher plant in Winnenden/Germany

orientation.” The Kärcher and technicians are product development engaged in developing new process focuses on solving products and continuously cleaning problems for its improving and updating customers, and this requires well established ones. Their Number of patents a high level of interaction record of achievement Kächer has taken out on with the customer. To speaks for itself. Over its new developments achieve this, the company lifetime the company has has nurtured a culture of taken out an astonishing 1,270 patents on new open and friendly dialogue with the customer, and has built strong developments, 424 of which are active relationships and communication routes today. Meanwhile, the R&D department is both directly and through the network of working on 49 new patent applications. subsidiaries, sales offices and after sales “We invest above average amounts in research and development,” says Jenner, service partners that span the world.

This business intelligence is then fed back “and also in further training and education to company headquarters in Winnenden, of our 9,000 employees all over the world.”

Stuttgart, where a team over 600 engineers This focus on raising the level of skills

1,270

across all divisions of the organisation is a key to maintaining quality and improving performance. In addition to the standard induction and skills training, the company has a policy of ensuring every member of staff receives a minimum of 2.6 days of specialist training every year.

People are placed very firmly at the heart of the organisation and this is

reflected in the Kärcher corporate culture.

Creativity, commitment, team working and a proactive exchange of information across the company are all actively promoted and highly valued.

Today’s product portfolio comprises over 3,000 devices including industrial and household carpet cleaners, pressure washers, wet and dry vacuums, steam

“People are placed very firmly at the heart of the organisation and this is reflected in the Kärcher corporate culture”

The RC 3000 RoboCleaner works automatically and is suitable for nearly all kinds of floor covering

K채rcher

DIY application of a wet and dry vacuum

cleaners, scrubber driers, spray extractors, window cleaning equipment and even a fully automatic robot vacuum cleaner.

These are supplemented by pumps for the home and garden, a comprehensive range of irrigation accessories and water treatment plant.

The company has a well defined environmental policy that reaches into every aspect of the business. Initiatives are in place to reduce power and water consumption in the administrative and production areas and this is achieved through a combination of intelligent procurement, process and plant improvement and changing staff habits.

The environmental focus is not purely internal to K채rcher. The R&D team is continuously working to optimise the products themselves, to improve their environmental performance and to conserve natural resources through the lifetime of the product. Simple improvements in the design of attachments or in machine efficiency, for example, can markedly reduce power and water consumption when the equipment is in use.

Units and cleaning agents are optimally coordinated to perform impressively under strenuous conditions and yet reduce the impact on the environment. Meanwhile, steam cleaning by its very nature makes

The compact MC 50 municipal sweeper is suitable for year-round use

Kärcher

3,000+ Number of devices in the Kärcher product portfolio it possible to clean surfaces effectively without the use of chemicals.

Over the years Kärcher has built an enviable reputation for quality, reliability and excellence, and is aware that any reputation is only as good as the latest product to leave the factory gate. The company therefore works very hard to protect its distinctive yellow brand through a policy of zero defects at all manufacturing plants. An extensive quality management system is in operation across all Kärcher factories and every piece of equipment, even on lines that produce up to 10,000 machines a day, is tested before being shipped to the customer.

Cleanliness is often a quality that goes unnoticed: it’s dirt that attracts attention, dulls the environment and creates a health hazard. But in homes around the globe, in heavy duty and often challenging industrial applications and indeed on many of the world’s most sensitive historical monuments, Kärcher is helping to achieve an ideal—an environment that is clean, safe and good to look at.

For more information about Kärcher visit: www.karcher.com

K채rcher www.karcher.com

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