BWI: Long-Term Orientation and Lasting Commitment as the Key to Success for Freudenberg in India

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Freudenberg
Wednesday, March 25, 2009 05:42 PM IST (12:12 PM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Social issues; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Business services, Chemicals; Technology
Release no: 19557
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Long-Term Orientation and Lasting Commitment as the Key to Success for Freudenberg in India
German Group of Companies Supports Tsunami Victims with Rs 6.5 Crores

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Wednesday, March 25, 2009 -- (Business Wire India) -- India is and will remain one of the most important growth markets for the Freudenberg Group, as is confirmed by the 41 percent rise in sales to 547 Rs. crores over the last five years. The family company supports this rapid growth with a long-term development concept and investments in expanding existing facilities as well as establishing new locations. Since 2004, the Group and its partners in the region have invested over Rs 116. Crores in production facilities and the sales organization. The Freudenberg Group intends to intensify its commitment in India further and is backing a network of innovative, globally active Business Groups.

"With growth rates well above the international average, India has emerged as a major economy. For many of our customers - and therefore for Freudenberg, too - the country plays an important strategic role," said Dr. Jörg Matthias Großmann, the Freudenberg Group's Regional Representative for India and Chief Financial Officer of Freudenberg Chemical Specialities KG.

The Freudenberg Group can look back on some 100 years of business relations with customers in India and established its first subsidiaries in this growth market about 40 years ago. This is a strategy that has paid off: today, the company has a solid basis in one of the key growth markets.

"The openness and ability of our associates in India is the foundation for our excellent positioning which we will be strengthening on a long-term basis," Großmann stressed. Today, the company and its partners employ more than 2,000 people at eleven sites in India. Targeted HR recruitment and development measures in particular play a key role in Freudenberg's development concept. For this reason, the company cooperates with various universities and research institutes such as the Indian Institute for Management (IIM) in Bangalore. The objective is to train students in an international environment and to underpin their theoretical training with practical experience. Freudenberg awards a scholarship valued at 1.5 Rs lakh to the two best first-year students, underscoring the importance of the cooperation with IIM.

Long-term commitment for tsunami victims

Freudenberg has been a responsible corporate citizen at sites all over the world for 160 years. The family company is also acknowledged as a good neighbor in India, particularly as regards one special project.

Training to become a welding technician, industrial fitter, motor mechanic or machinist: the Freudenberg Group is giving some 130 young people the prospect of a job and a future following the devastating tsunami in 2004. Freudenberg has built a training center in Nagapattinam in the south Indian province of Tamil Nadu, the region worst affected by the disaster. As a gesture of help and solidarity with the victims, the family company launched this long-term aid project, its largest outside Germany, in addition to immediate post-disaster financial assistance. The training center in Nagapattinam will be inaugurated on March 26. Apart from the apprentices and their families, the ceremony will be attended by politicians, the media, neighbors and members of the Freudenberg project team.

After the tsunami, Freudenberg Group associates began looking for various ways to help the victims. Having identified and evaluated where needs lay, building work on the training center in Nagapattinam started in 2007. Depending on their choice of trade, the young people will train for between one and two years. They have access to the center's own library and computer room so that they can extend their knowledge beyond what they learn in the classroom.

"We want to be responsible corporate citizens in all countries, states and communities in which we do business," said Dr. Jörg Matthias Großmann. "The tsunami aid project in Nagapattinam is a concrete way of helping people in a structurally weak region and giving them the prospect of a job through this vocational training."

Once they have completed their apprenticeships, the young people stand a good chance of earning their living in the area affected by the tsunami and improving the infrastructure in the region.

About Freudenberg

The Freudenberg Group is a German-based company offering its customers technically challenging product solutions and services. The company supplies seals, vibration control technology components, filters, nonwovens, release agents and lubricants to almost all of the world's car manufacturers. The significance of customers from other industry sectors, such as mechanical and plant engineering, the energy, chemistry, oil and gas industries or the medical and pharmaceutical sector, is continually gaining ground. A small share of its products is sold to consumers under the vileda®, O'Cedar® and Wettex® brands.

Freudenberg's actions are driven by the search to find the best solutions for its customers. This has been the case for the last 160 years and remains the company's pledge for the future. As a family company, Freudenberg is guided by its long-term orientation, financial solidity and the excellence of its people in 53 countries around the globe. Consolidated annual sales of the Freudenberg Group exceeded 30,272 Rs. crores in 2007. The company employs more than 34,500 people worldwide.


CONTACT DETAILS
Cornelia Buchta-Noack, Head of Corporate Communications, Freudenberg & Co. KG, +49 6201 - 80-4094, cornelia.buchta-noack@freudenberg.de
Lynda Coward, Corporate Communications Manager, Freudenberg Chemical Specialities KG, +49 89-78 76 1871, lynda.coward@fcs-munich.com
Vidhya Srinivasan, Intergrated Brand-Comm Pvt Ltd., +91 9382330783, vidhya@brand-comm.com
Sandhya Raju, Intergrated Brand-Comm Pvt Ltd., +91 9380572123, sandhya@brand-comm.com

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, SOCIAL, MARKETING, BUSINESS SERVICES, CHEMICALS, TECHNOLOGY

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