At Wanzl, the balance sheet is in line with forecasts – at the end of 2012, Wanzl invited 95 employees from the Leipheim and Kirchheim plants who had worked for the company for either 40, 25 or 10 years, along with their partners, to an evening of celebrations at the Landgasthof Waldvogel country hotel in Leipheim. Farewells were also said to 26 employees soon to be embarking on their retirement, and they were thanked for their dedication and commitment. The musical entertainment for the evening was provided by Leipheim's city band the Stadtkapelle Leipheim, conducted by Lisa Mayer, along with the gospel duo Siyou and Joe.
The managing director Gottfried Wanzl gave a welcome to the guests and management staff present. "Today what we should be focussing on is interpersonal relationships." He warmly thanked both the employees celebrating their anniversaries with the company and the employees entering retirement for their decades of loyalty to Wanzl. At the same time, Gottfried Wanzl also took advantage of the celebration as an opportunity for retrospection and to look ahead to 2013.
An eventful end to the year for Wanzl: at the start of 2012 its entry into the world's largest domestic market of the USA and Canada, which had long been prepared for, was finally underway. Wanzl took over the market leader for shopping trolleys in North America Cari-All/Technibilt, including its production sites in North Carolina and Montreal. Walmart, the world's largest retail dealer, has since become one of Wanzl's top customers, acting as a stimulus for growth, creating opportunities for the future and providing security. Gottfried Wanzl confirmed that since the takeover, the sales and business evolution had developed according to plan. He said that the results so far have been positive: "We have been able to expand sales and win additional market share. We are currently working on transferring detailed expertise from Germany to North America, which also generates opportunities for Swabia as a location."
There was also further dynamic development for Wanzl 2012 in the emergent Shop Solutions business area: the growth of this business division compensated for the weak growth and therefore for the losses in sales in the Southern European countries. For several months now, the reconstruction of the electroplating system at the Leipheim site has been running at full speed and exactly on schedule following the devastating night of fire in February. Gottfried Wanzl once again expressed his thanks for all those who helped to re-stabilise the operating processes so quickly. "What an excellent joint achievement – no customers have cancelled their orders, we have not lost any customers."
Gottfried Wanzl then looked back at when the employees celebrating their anniversaries joined the company 40, 25 and 10 years ago. In 1972, four decades ago, Wanzl had 520 employees and at the same time celebrated its 25-year company anniversary. Just 15 years later – 25 years ago – Wanzl had multiplied its sales fivefold to 90 million euros, while the number of employees had increased to 1,100. The growth of the company continued on this sharp upward course through to 2002, one decade ago, when 1,800 employees, including the employees now celebrating their 10-year work anniversaries, earned the company 205 million euros. Gottfried Wanzl then moved from 2002 back to the present day: "Today we have organised our company to be immune to economic crises, we can look forward with confidence and take the phrase 'job security' seriously in the future. It is your experience, your routine work and your commitment that have significantly contributed to the growth of Wanzl."
In view of this development, Gottfried Wanzl once again highlighted the excellent co-operation between production and management at the Wanzl plants in Leipheim and Kirchheim as well as the effective collaboration across the entire group. He went on to wish the retiring employees health and vitality as well as a well-earned, restful retirement with active hobbies and time for family.
Gottfried Wanzl expressed warm thanks to Dieter Ammicht for his 46 years of service with Wanzl. He was bid farewell as he entered the well-earned passive phase of his partial retirement in December 2012. Dieter Ammicht has influenced the path of Wanzl for a total of 31 years on the works council. "You worked towards balancing interests and building stability. The co-operation between employees, the works council and the general management was exemplary under your guidance."
The departing Chairman of the General Works Council Dieter Ammicht then congratulated the employees present: "Celebrating a significant number of years with the company is a way of expressing the life experience and professional experience you have built up as well as the flexibility, commitment and enthusiasm for learning that you have shown. Dieter Ammicht emphasised the importance of the good working atmosphere and thanked the management and the Wanzl family for their commitment.
Guests at the Wanzl end-of-year celebration also included new staff who completed their training with the company in 2012. Managing Director Gottfried Wanzl congratulated them on their "outstanding achievements". Out of 31 graduates, 19 achieved a grade 1 (1 prior to the decimal place) for their leaving certificate and 11 even achieved a score better than 1.5. Gottfried Wanzl thanked the new junior employees as well as their trainers and supervisors. "These achievements mean Wanzl can look forward to the future with confidence."
Manfred Anders, Josef Fenzl, Johann Fleischer, Hans-Peter Gey, Yusuf Halatli, Azem Kelmendi, Karl Lachmann, Margret Lappe, Wolfgang Lauer, Manfred Mattler, Lidia Molke, Maria Locher, Mehmet Pusrek, Ümmü Pusrek, Emil Schneider, Michael Schneider, Dock Weaver, Ali Yilmaz
Sibylle Saumweber, Peter Schuster
Mustafa Aydin-Sakir, Kalman Bardosi, Anton Bäuerle, Judith-Eva Böhm, Vittorio Callara, Necip Cankaya, Benedetto Diamante, Thomas Enke, Hermann Eichele, Jürgen Ettrich, Peter Fischer, Abdullah Halatli, Jürgen Häuser, Hartmut Hegele, Elke Mailänder, Anton Mayer, Karl Pander, Harald Quiland, Siegfried Rabuser, Christine Rettenberger, Emilio-Elio Ricci, Helene Rösner, Manfred Schmid, Michael Schneider, Bettina Schönberger, Rainer Schwürzinger, Michael Siegerth, Ralph Staib, Mehmet-Ali Tanrikulu
Hans-Ulrich Brun, Vittoria Callara, Oliver Deinlein, Ali Emektar, Sonja Ersing, Andre Georg Feldengut, Thomas Frei, Alexander Gilgenberg, Vera Grauer, Jasmin Hitzler, Marion Horn, Altay Ilbay, Alexander Ilin, Anne Kempfle, Jutta Lades-Magerl, Bernd Löffler, Georg Luible, Andreas Lumpp, Maximilian Miller, Dominic Mößle, Ersin Özer, Marco Pech, Christian Remmele, Stefan Remmele, Alexander Reus, Osman Sancak, Franz Saumweber, Michael Schütz, Beate Seibold, Marie Sieber, Christian Simnacher, Paul Gustav vom Stein, Katharina Unseld, Annalisa Ventura Mastrolembo, Michael Wagner
The Wanzl directors Frank Derks, Dr. Hans-Jürgen Sattler and Bernhard Renzhofer, and Gottfried Wanzl (from left), as well as the Chairman of the General Works Council Dieter Ammicht (back row, far right) (entering retirement in 2012) paid tribute to employees who had given many years of service. Pictured are employees who have been working at Leipheim for 40 or 25 years.
