20.09.2016

Mittelstand award for Ruthmann

Ruthmann has been named as one of four North Rhine Westphalia winners of the Großer Preis des Mittelstandes – Grand Prize of small to medium sized companies – by the Oskar-Patzelt foundation.

The company was nominated by its regional Economic Development Agency, Dr Kleinschneider, the former Mayor of the city of Gescher, Hubert Effkemann of the Münster district administration and Ingrid Arndt-Brauer the company’s member of parliament. It has been shortlisted before, but this year it became one of four state winners, the others being KFM Deutsche Mittelstand of Düsseldorf, Essmann's Backstube of Altenberge and Wilhelm Schröder from Herscheid.

The reasons given for its success was its performances in creating and securing jobs and training opportunities as well as innovation, modernisation, commitment to the region and customer service. Ruthmann was shortlisted as a finalist in 2014 – the other four winners have also reached this stage before. In October three national winners will be selected from the 48 regional winners.

Ruthmann's managing director Rolf Kulawik said: “It was a very moving moment when Ruthmann was name a winner. I can only describe this feeling with pride and gratitude. I am proud and thankful to each single team player of our family-owned company. Here I include as well - in addition to all employees in Gescher and the local service stations in Germany - of course, the team of our finance and Austrian subsidiaries, not to mention the new team of Ruthmann Italia. We have achieved this all together. A special thank-you goes to our shareholders Heinrich Winkelmann and Heinz Jürgen Buss. Without their 100 percent support this great success would not have been possible. “

The awards have been organised by the Oskar-Patzelt foundation of Leipzig since 1994. This year 4,500 companies were nominated to the 12 regions, with 800 selected to go forward the second round and four winners selected in each region.
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Rolf Kulawik accepts the award