Bauerfeind

Bauerfeind headquarters in Zeulenroda, Thuringia
See Bauernfeind for the surname.

Bauerfeind AG is a German health care equipment company, one of the largest manufacturers of orthopaedic stockings and inserts in the world. Its headquarters are in Zeulenroda-Triebes, Thuringia. It is a family company, not listed on any stock exchange.

The company was founded in Zeulenroda in 1929 by Bruno Bauerfeind as a manufacturer of medical rubber stockings. In 1949 his son, Rudolf Bauerfeind, left Zeulenroda because of the policy of nationalisation in East Germany and rebuilt the company in western Germany, first in Darmstadt-Eberstadt and then in Kempen.[1][2] Immediately after German reunification, in 1991, Hans B. Bauerfeind, grandson of the founder and chairman of the management board since 1976,[3] returned Bauerfeind GmbH, as it then was, to Zeulenroda,[2] buying a compression bandage manufacturer there and investing more than 100 million euros in a new production facility, a research centre and a new 57-metre headquarters building,[4] the tallest new building constructed in Thuringia since reunification. The family-owned company became an Aktiengesellschaft in 2002.[1]

Hans Bauerfeind has built up the company to an international group. There are currently approximately 2,000 employees, 800 of them in Zeulenroda,[5] and subsidiaries in a number of countries, including Austria, France, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and the United States. Sales in 2010 were approximately 250 million euros.[4] The company is the European market leader and prominent worldwide in the area of compression bandages and orthopaedic inserts[6][7][8][9] and has developed computer applications such as software to model clients' legs in three dimensions for accurate fitting.[5][10] For the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Bauerfeind supplied not only compression stockings but 750 pairs of health shoes manufactured by their Berkemann subsidiary.[11] Hans Bauerfeind himself holds more than 60 patents and in 2007 was awarded an honorary professorship by the Fachhochschule Münster for his and the company's role in the establishment of the course of study in technical orthopaedics at German technical universities and the company's extensive financial support for the programme at Münster.[1] The company also participates in an international education programme and awards a prize of its own.[1] Bauerfeind also owns the Bio-Seehotel in Zeulenroda, which has several times been named one of Germany's best conference hotels.[6][12] It was created in 2006 as a further conversion of a conference centre which had been a Free German Trade Union Federation hotel.[13]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Christoph Hachtkemper, Stehende Ovationen für einen Unternehmer und Förderer, Press release, Fachhochschule Münster, 29 November 2007 (German)
  2. 1 2 Hans B. Bauerfeind, "Gewagt und gewonnen", Die Welt 25 September 2010 (German)
  3. ↑ According to the Fachhochschule Münster press release, 1979.
  4. 1 2 Andreas Hummel, "Unternehmer der Wende", Frankenpost 29 July 2010 (German)
  5. 1 2 Norbert Block, "Cebit-Premiere: Bauerfeind ist bei 'Deutschland bewegt sich' aktiv", Thüringische Landeszeitung 4 March 2011 (German)
  6. 1 2 Elfriede Schneider, "Ein konservativer Querdenker", Frankenpost 7 April 2009 (German)
  7. ↑ "Bandagen für Olympia", Unsere Marktführer, Süddeutsche Zeitung 3 December 2009 (German): "Die SZ stellt in dieser Serie jene Firmen vor, die auf ihrem Geschäftsfeld zu den größten drei der Welt zählen. Heute: Bauerfeind aus Zeulenroda, weltweit führend bei Sanitätsbedarf." "In this series SZ presents those firms which are in the top three in their field of business. Today: Bauerfeind of Zeulenroda, worldwide leader in healthcare supplies."
  8. ↑ Karsten Stumm, "Familienunternehmen: Die Jobmacher", Manager magazin 1 April 2005 (German): "ein richtiger Champion der Gesundheitsbranche" - "a real champion of the health field"
  9. ↑ Ken Elkins, "Bracing for a growing business", Charlotte Business Journal 28 February 2000, p. 4: "The field [of medical braces] is dominated by such manufacturers as Bauerfeind USA Inc., a subsidiary of a German orthopaedic products company, and one or two other large, international companies."
  10. ↑ Natascha Plankermann, "Tragbarer Ersatz für das Herz: Neuentwicklungen bei der Medizinmesse Medica in Düsseldorf", Die Welt 23 November 2008 (German)
  11. ↑ Burkhard Riering and Hagen Seidel, "Olympisches Geld", Die Welt 13 August 2004 (German)
  12. ↑ Awards, Bio-Seehotel Zeulenroda.
  13. ↑ "Bio-Hotel", 365 Orte im Land der Ideen, Die Welt 9 May 2010 (German)

External links

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