A hundred-year balance Annual Report 2010 - Uzin Utz AG
A hundred-year balance Annual Report 2010 - Uzin Utz AG
A hundred-year balance Annual Report 2010 - Uzin Utz AG
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» Other essential requirements – particularly with regard<br />
to sustainability, environmental protection and ecological<br />
orientation – have also been created, in order to enable us<br />
to face current and future challenges successfully.<br />
» Sustainability must not simply be a label, but is seen<br />
as an indication of company responsibility, and must characterise<br />
the attitude of the whole company.<br />
» The <strong>Uzin</strong> <strong>Utz</strong> Group is one of the forerunners in the<br />
field of sustainable building products. Sustainability is not<br />
regarded as one-dimensional in our company, but always<br />
includes ecological, economic and social considerations:<br />
» Firstly, the objective is to develop products which contribute<br />
to healthy room air. Secondly, it is not only the<br />
emissions which are important for building products. Manufacturers<br />
are increasingly required to provide environmental<br />
product data. The <strong>Uzin</strong> <strong>Utz</strong> Group is the first company<br />
in the sector to enable the sustainable assessment<br />
of the complete floor construction with its environmental<br />
product declarations.<br />
» In a challenging economic environment, characterised<br />
by uncertainties caused by the financial market crisis,<br />
tougher competition and negative currency effects, the<br />
<strong>Uzin</strong> <strong>Utz</strong> Group has maintained its position very well, and<br />
come off better than the competition in many important<br />
aspects.<br />
Internal company success factors<br />
Now as before, our long-standing and long-term strategy,<br />
the combination of the four internal company success<br />
factors<br />
−−<br />
highly qualified and highly motivated employees,<br />
−−<br />
leading, high-quality products in an intelligent system<br />
structure,<br />
−−<br />
unique service and logistics concept,<br />
−−<br />
successful brands that create confidence,<br />
is demonstrating its sustainable effectiveness. With regard<br />
to these four convincing focal points of our company culture,<br />
which form our basis for profitable growth, nothing<br />
has changed in the past, nor will it change in the future.<br />
» We are flexible and adaptable. We also work continually<br />
on new and benefit-orientated products which convince<br />
our customers. We operate an excellent risk management<br />
system, which contributes to our sustainable<br />
value creation, and therefore to long-term business success.<br />
The <strong>Uzin</strong> <strong>Utz</strong> Group can also rely on the special dedication<br />
of skilled employees and management teams. All<br />
this, together with highly satisfied customers, contributes<br />
to stability and repeatedly offers new opportunities,<br />
for which the Group is well-prepared.<br />
» Started in October 2009, the construction of the new<br />
central building for Research & Development was almost<br />
completed by the end of <strong>2010</strong>, so that from early 2011,<br />
our employees have even more room for their ideas for<br />
the development of innovative top products. The new<br />
building also represents a commitment to the headquarters<br />
location of Ulm, and is a visible confirmation that we<br />
continue to rely on the location of Germany.<br />
» The average number of employees in the Group fell to<br />
841 (859). Of these, 474 (486) were employed in Germany<br />
and 367 (373) abroad. 38 (46) young people were also<br />
taken on as trainees. This underlines impressively the efforts<br />
that have been going on for many <strong>year</strong>s to train our<br />
own qualified specialist personnel throughout the group,<br />
and prepare them for future positions in the company. The<br />
Group will continue in future with this important business<br />
policy task, offering future prospects to young people by<br />
means of special training opportunities, and at the same<br />
time ensuring qualified future employees for the company.<br />
The <strong>Uzin</strong> <strong>Utz</strong> Group wants their outstanding dedication<br />
to remain in the company in the future. Everything<br />
is therefore being done to foster this potential in the best<br />
possible way.<br />
» <strong>Uzin</strong> <strong>Utz</strong> <strong>AG</strong> and Unipro B.V., Haaksbergen, Netherlands,<br />
are certified to the DIN ISO standards. The branch<br />
in Vaihingen and Herrmann Frank GmbH were newly<br />
certified in the business <strong>year</strong> <strong>2010</strong>. Both locations produce<br />
machinery for floor laying and treatment. Further<br />
internal auditors were also trained in these companies<br />
in <strong>2010</strong>, and comprehensive audit programmes instituted.<br />
The external repeat and re-certification audits once<br />
again confirmed the high quality and the correctness of<br />
the previous certification.<br />
» In the business <strong>year</strong> <strong>2010</strong>, production throughout the<br />
group was carried out at the production locations in Ulm,<br />
Vaihingen/Enz, Oberderdingen, Würzburg, Meckenheim,<br />
Buochs (Switzerland), Sursee (Switzerland), Haaksbergen<br />
(Netherlands), Legnica (Poland), Soissons (France), Shanghai<br />
(China), Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Jakarta (Indonesia). The<br />
total utilisation of all <strong>Uzin</strong> <strong>Utz</strong> works was around 87.5%,<br />
thereby increasing by around 1.9 percentage points over<br />
the previous <strong>year</strong> (85.6). There was no notable increase<br />
in production capacities in the Group in the <strong>year</strong> <strong>2010</strong>.<br />
» There were no major changes in the production range.<br />
Now as before, every batch produced throughout the<br />
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