The new generation of Bürkert business management was ushered in at the beginning of the year. Effective January 1, 2004, Heribert Rohrbeck became a managing director of the holding company alongside Gerhard Hettinger, so that a dual transitional management team will be in existence until Gerhard Hettinger's retirement in 2005. Dorothee Bürkert retired as Managing Director of the Christian Bürkert GmbH & Co. KG (Holding Company), after 32 years in the corporate management.
Gerhard Hettinger and Dorothee Bürkert jointly managed the corporate holding company (Christian Bürkert GmbH & Co. KG) since Christian Bürkert's fatal accident in 1971. During these 32 years, the group's turnover evolved from 30 million DM (about 15 million €) to 225 million € in 2003.
Until 2005, the business management of the Bürkert Works (Bürkert Werke GmbH & Co. KG) will consist of Gerhard Hettinger, Heribert Rohrbeck and Gerhard Koch. Gerhard Koch has been active in the Bürkert Works business management since 2003 and has been responsible for the complete operations of Financing and Controlling, Order Processing and Personnel throughout the world. Within the freamework of factory management, Heribert Rohrbeck is responsible for the complete operations of Research and Development, Production and Distribution throughout the world.
The circle of shareholders consists of the Bürkert family.
Corporate realignment will be continued
Bürkert was once again able to boost turnover during the past business year: The turnover (consolidated) increased by 3.5 % percent to 225 million Euros. The fact that the unfavourable Dollar-to-Euro exchange rate did not have a stronger effect on the corporate result despite the export share of 60 percent is above all due to the development of new business segments, such as system solutions as well as the strengthening of the consultation offerings.
The corporate realignment of the process-oriented organisational structure was started in recent years and is continuing. This entails internal structural improvements as well as streamlining the service programme. In order to more efficiently streamline the steps, the five corporate divisions have been reorganised and expanded into the processes of Innovation (Helge Berg), Production (Jürgen Lorenz), Order Processing (Gerhard Koch), Distribution (Heribert Rohrbeck) and Personnel (Gerhard Koch/ Dr. Stefan Fischer).
The prime objective for the upcoming year is the continued expansion of the systems business. To this end, the standard programme will be revised and customer-specific solutions as well as the highly-qualified consultation offerings will be significantly expanded upon. In the medium term, Bürkert will position itself as the technology leader for "Fluid Control Systems".
Training quota remains high
Another essential emphasis for Bürkert is training and development. So, the training budget remains unchanged at over 10 percent. This means that 25 trainees enter into an apprenticeship at Bürkert every year. In this way, the company intends to recruit its own junior staff. "Internal staff development", explains Gerhard Hettinger, "precedes external recruitment." For this reason, Bürkert also places considerable value on staff development. The training centre inaugurated last year is the visible expression of this idea. Employee and customer training courses have been held here since May 2003. In particular, these courses impart expertise and additional information about a vast array of applicable fields for Bürkert system solutions. The training offer will be expanded in the future. Together with the Heidelberg-based consulting firm O&P Consult, Bürkert intends to offer additional programmes for personnel and management development which are also aimed at external interested individuals.
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