Fifty years ago, precisely on 1 June 1960, Werner Thieme established Thieme GbR on a very small scale. With two business areas – polyurethane and printing systems – and 350 employees, today the Thieme…
Fifty years ago, precisely on 1 June 1960, Werner Thieme established Thieme GbR on a very small scale. With two business areas – polyurethane and printing systems – and 350 employees, today the Thieme Group achieves annual sales of about EUR 43 million. In South Baden alone, this independent second-generation family enterprise employs around 320 workers. Thanks to its flexibility, Thieme adapts continuously to market requirements, and with its ideas, implementation capabilities, readiness to take risks and the frequently quoted “lucky hand”, and, last but not least, the Werner Thieme of yesterday and his son Frank of today, have allowed the small company that began in a tiny backyard of Emmendingen to advance into an internationally established and recognized enterprise. Even today, at the age of 82, company founder Werner Thieme exudes pioneer spirit and zest for action. In the best sense, he has always been conservative only concerning the topic of location: throughout the decades he has stayed true to his home in Breisgau – today“s headquarters are only a few miles from their origins. Additionally, Thieme also has sales and service locations in France, Great Britain and in the US. It all began with the contract manufacturing of machine components. This advanced to specialised machines and in 1965 to a second business area – the Thieme plastics. Starting in 1972, this developed into the specialisation in high-quality moulded parts of polyurethane (PUR) and ten years later the integration of energy absorbers for the automobile industry. Today, Thieme is recognized as one of the globally leading specialists for high-quality moulded and functional parts made from PUR and other plastics. In 1976, Thieme started production of screen printing machines. Here too, the ambitious enterprise succeeded in just a few years in advancing from an outsider to a leading supplier and finally to a technology and market leader. Today the large format multi-colour lines of the Thieme 5000 series are part of the Nonplus ultra for graphic applications and Thieme has also developed a multitude of solutions for the area of technical screen printing including those for the photovoltaic industry. With the innovative printing machine M-Press Tiger, Thieme recently entered the digital printing market with success. In 2002, Frank Thieme became the principle shareholder of the company, a position which he has since carried out with the same conscientiousness as his father in order to further manage the company with the same level of success as in the past 50 years. “Of decisive importance in our fast-living world of today is the organization of the company which must also secure success in the future,” states Frank Thieme with confidence. For the Teninger company, this means on the one hand to maintain the proven flexibility of the past in order to actively approach the new market demands. On the other hand, company director Frank Thieme places more value than ever on solidarity, reliability and predictability for the employees, customers, suppliers, and the company surroundings, such as banks and the community. Both core items determine the thinking and acting of the traditional enterprise: “The confidence achieved by this forms the basis for the continued successful path of our enterprise group in the future,” states Frank Thieme.