Empowered by values, courage and positivity

23.11.2015. Two-hundred and thirty-seven employees who had reached personal milestones in their working lives were honoured at this year’s traditional acknowledgement ceremony, held at the Rittal’s headquarters on Stützelberg, Herborn. A lot has happened in the last 40 years: The Friedhelm Loh Group has grown in Germany and internationally, new markets have been opened up and new products developed. All this not only links these longserving employees closely to their workplace, but also to their employer.

Nearly 250 employees, more than 5,000 years of service overall and around 1.3 million working days. Besides these figures, pride of place went to the many joyful faces at the Friedhelm Loh Group’s traditional anniversary celebration. On this day, Friedhelm Loh, the Group’s owner and CEO, personally paid tribute to the longserving employees during the ceremony at Rittal’s Herborn headquarters: “Every company lives from the way its employees identify with it. Our company's success has also got much to do with the fact that your lives are closely linked to our company”, said Friedhelm Loh, thanking them for their 10, 25 or even 40 years of loyal service: “It’s one of our greatest strengths and an important sign that we’ve been together for so many years. You are this company’s greatest asset.”

Achievements and developments: A journey through time

When we celebrate years and decades, it is always a good time occasion to look back on developments and successes. The 237 longserving employees were taken on a journey through time from a rewarding past to an Page 2 exciting future for the family business: “Forty years ago, we had roughly as many employees in total as the number of staff who are now celebrating their anniversaries”, Friedhelm Loh said. Three of them have been with us all that time: Friedhelm Sauerwald, Michael Schlosser and Elfi Beurenmeister were there when Rittal started on its road to growth. Three new foreign subsidiaries were founded in 1975 alone. And hopefully, that growth will continue. Today, Rittal has 58 subsidiaries.

1990, the historic year of German reunification, Rittal’s business was marked by new technologies: Back then, within a mere six months, we developed the first cooling unit for enclosures . We are now the largest manufacturer of such cooling units in the world”, Mr. Loh added. The same year, Rittal opened its first overseas production centre, in the growth market of the United States. LKH, (now Stahlo), founded in the 1980s and meanwhile an integral part of the corporate group, acquired its first industrial robot: “We now know that in the future, robots will help us decide how we will live and work. This development began 25 years ago.” That year, 179 employees began work in the group, experiencing these developments at first hand.

Staff celebrating ten years of service were well able to remember their early days during a year dominated by IT, education and training. RiMatrix, Rittal’s complete data centre solution, was a great success. And Eplan, the software house for virtual planning in engineering, found itself the centre of growth: “Today, software – the intelligence in the factory – opens up many doors for us, all over the world", Mr. Loh pointed out. In 2005, the group's own training facility, the Loh Academy, was founded: “Progress can only grow from knowledge and skills. That’s why we launched this very special facility.” Now, between 1500 and 2500 employees receive training in seminars and workshops every year, acquiring valuable expertise that has advanced the group. Since 2005, it has also been benefiting the new subsidiaries in China and India.

Courageous outlook of the future

“Through all these years of hard work together, we have shared goals and pursued them, and we have managed to inspire” Friedhelm Loh concluded: Today we have more than 11,500 employees and 78 subsidiaries in the Friedhelm Loh Group. This growth and development was only possible because we were constantly evolving and changing.” This ability to embrace change is probably the company’s and its employees’ greatest strength: “Don’t lose this courage. Because Rittal will keep on changing to shape up for tomorrow. It is also your chance to enjoy an excellent future.”

Friedhelm Loh also used the celebration to pay tribute to the three best trainees. Franziska Ines Hain, Christian Droß and Etienne Erbe completed this year’s training with top marks. “We have super trainees”, said Friedhelm Loh, praising the three new recruits, two of whom already want to study on the “StudiumPlus” course and so attain further qualifications.

In the spirit of the season, Friedhelm Loh thanked everyone for the time spent together, with his best wishes for a relaxing Christmas and an exciting future: “I wish to extend a heartfelt Thank You and wish you the very best in the New Year. May God bless you all. I wish you many more fulfilling and enjoying years. I hope you have people who love you, and people with whom you can continue working together with and doing so well. But above all, I wish you gratitude for this life. Because out of gratitude grows the strength that we always need to progress.”