[Happy Birthday, Buderus!]
A 275-year tradition of innovation Buderus can look back on a remarkable success story of an unremitting ability to set constantly new trends in heating technology.
Wetzlar, March 13, 2006. When Johann Wilhelm Buderus Senior established his company on March 14, 1731 by taking over the Friedrichs-hütte ironworks near Laubach in Upper Hesse, there was neither electricity nor steam engines. Germany was still a collection of small inde-pendent states, and the United States of America had yet to be founded. Since that day, 275 years have passed which have seen war and peace, social upheavals, industrial revolutions and enormous technical advances.
Quality and innovative technology as trademarks
Buderus has always had the knack of adapting successfully to changed conditions, making it by far the oldest brand in today’s heating technology sector in Germany. What started out in 1731 with the manufacture of cast iron stove plates developed into a success story of German industrial history to which new chapters have constantly been added. As early as the 19th century, Buderus was the leading stove producer in the Lahn area and in Upper Hesse. From 1881 onwards, Buderus manufactured the Lönholdt stove which was the highest quality stove in the world at that time and was sold worldwide. 1895 saw the start of the first industrial-scale series production of cast iron sectional boilers in Germany in the Lollar Ironworks which had been acquired in 1861. The first radiator plant on the European continent was also built in Lollar in 1898. A development department was established in the Lollar plant as long ago as 1907/08 with the remit to design new boilers. Buderus`sche Handelsge-sellschaft, set up in 1911, also included heating accessories in its range from 1913 onwards, as a result of which Buderus became the first supplier of complete systems in the heating sector.
The name of Buderus became a byword for a comfortable indoor climate and quality products even before the First World War. Buderus has had a lasting impact on the development of modern heating technology: starting from the first German special oil-fired boiler (around 1930) via the special gas-fired boiler (1969) and the development of low-temperature technology (1977) to the system concept in heating technology in the 1990s. Today Buderus is a one-stop shop for all components from solar collectors to controllers. Thanks to its comprehensive branch network comprising 48 sales branches and 10 service centres throughout Germany, its closeness to customers is unrivalled in the heating technology sector.
Social responsibility from the very start
There was always a tradition of emotional ties between staff and customers and the Buderus brand, and this continues to this day. Elisabetha Magdalena Buderus, the wife of the company’s founder, was one of the first businesswomen in Germany and drew up a code of practice as early as 1762 which obliged company management to deal benevolently with its employees. This code of practice can be seen as an early form of a company constitution. Thereafter, Buderus proved to be a pioneer not only in terms of engineering but also in the social benefits it offered as an employer. Buderus’s employees could count on sickness and pension benefits right back in the 19th century, long before Bismarck’s social legislation. Buderus’s social benefits, which were well above average for the time, were also praised in a book published in 1913 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Wilhelm II. After the Second World War Buderus continued its tradition of exemplary social benefits especially by building company housing, kindergartens in Wetzlar and Lollar and also convalescent homes for staff. After the reunification of Germany in 1990, Buderus determined not only to set up sales branches in the new states in the former East Germany, but also to make an additional contribution to safeguarding jobs by opening a manufacturing plant there. An existing factory in Neukirchen in the eastern state of Saxony was converted into a state-of-the-art production facility for flat-panel radiators.
Designed for growth
From the late 1980s onwards Buderus consolidated and intensified its growth course in Germany and also abroad. 1994 saw Buderus acquire the Dutch company Nefit Fasto Holding B.V., the European market leader for wall-hung condensing appliances. The takeover in 1997 of Solar Diamant, a leading producer of solar technology in the Münsterland region, enabled Buderus to expand its commitment to the ever more important field of renewable energies. In late 2002 UK manufacturer of floor-standing oil-fired boilers Boulter Boilers of Ipswich/England joined the Buderus Group. This was followed in November 2003 by the Czech heating appliance manufacturer Dakon s. r. o., a long-standing Eastern European brand for wall-hung boilers and solid-fuel boilers.
Successful as part of the Bosch Group
The Buderus brand has been owned since 2004 by BBT Thermotechnik GmbH, a leading company on the international stage which forms the Thermotechnology division of the Bosch Group. As a European supplier of heating products and domestic hot water solutions, BBT Thermotechnik GmbH owns 12 strong national and international brands. The unmistakable Buderus brand is a pivotal element of the new company and is also becoming ever more powerful on the international stage.
In its anniversary month of March, Buderus intends to celebrate its 275 years in business with its customers and staff. Numerous events and actions have been planned to that end. Piper Verlag is also publishing a high-quality pictorial book under the title “Feuer und Eisen – 275 Jahre Wärme von Buderus” about Buderus’s eventful history – an impressively lively work documenting German industrial and engineering history and also the economic history of the Lahn-Dill region and Upper Hesse.
BBT Thermotechnik GmbH represents the Thermotechnology Division of the Bosch Group. Together with its subsidiaries, the company is a leading supplier of heating products and hot water solutions in Europe. In fiscal 2005, the company generated sales of approx. EUR 2.6 billion (63 percent outside Germany) and employed approx. 12,600 people. BBT Thermotechnik has strong international and regional brands and manufactures a diversified product range in 19 plants in nine European and Asian countries.
For more information on BBT Thermotechnik GmbH, please visit www.bbt-thermotechnik.de
