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A continuation of the camp next year is already being considered.

Summer holidays are a great time. But some families go on holidays for six weeks, and for many parents, arranging appropriate care for their children during the holidays can be a problem. As a result, Dörken partnered with BUK Family Service from Dortmund this year to offer its first holiday camp for employees’ children. From 30 July to 3 August 2018, employees were able to drop their children off in the Cuno-Forum on their way to work and collect them there again in the afternoon. Parents could get on with their work worry-free, as the kids from 3 to 12 years of age were looked after by childcare specialists, and had great fun painting and crafting with Dörken film and Dörken paints, running around, reading (or being read to) and water fights, which were very welcome given the steadily high temperatures. The biggest highlights, however, were the team Olympics in the ‘Blue Beach’ hall in Witten and the excursion to Ketteler Hof in Haltern am See. Lots of kids had great fun here climbing, swinging and jumping in the ‘Climbing port’ or on the water slide, enjoyed the petting zoo, or even rode a horse for the first time. Of course, there was still enough time to relax and eat a lot of healthy fruit and vegetables together.

“The programme came at the perfect time in the summer holidays, and really they did a great job looking after our little son,” said Melanie and Horst Kufahl, who both work at Dörken, and are proud parents of two-year old Mats, at the closing get-together on Friday afternoon. If the reaction of the other parents of the 17 participating children is equally positive, a continuation of the programme next year will be considered.

Überlingen – For the 25th time, the TOP 100 competition recognised the most innovative German medium-sized companies. This year, Ewald Dörken AG is one of these leading innovators according to analysis by the scientific head of TOP 100, Prof. Dr Nikolaus Franke. As mentor of TOP 100, Ranga Yogeshwar honoured the company from Herdecke with Franke and compamedia on 29 June 2018 at the award ceremony in Ludwigsburg during the 5th German Medium-sized Enterprise Summit. This was the sixth time Ewald Dörken AG made the leap to the elite innovators. In the independent selection process, the roughly 1,000-strong company impressed in particular with the top management’s consistent focus on innovation.

In 1892, Carl and Ewald Dörken founded a small company to produce paint, varnish and anti-corrosion paints. 126 years later, Ewald Dörken AG has a staff of roughly 1,000 employees and four independent subsidiaries under one roof. The subsidiaries have made a name for themselves as specialists for composite membranes, microlayer corrosion protection systems, construction paints and intelligent tinting technologies in their respective industries. Over 130 national patent applications in the past four years are testimony to the innovation of the family company. The logical result: winning the sixth TOP 100 mark.

“Last year, we completely decentralised innovation management. The directors and managers have taken full responsibility for this topic.” explains Dr Ilias Mokanis, Head of Product Strategy and Planning. The change has proven itself. Instead of incremental improvements, the company is taking on more and more radical development projects. “Compared with previous ideas, the new approaches are now far more courageous, and the technological advances are far greater. This goes so far that we are now moving into completely new customer groups.” says Dr Mokanis. Accordingly, the medium-sized company now not only supplies the automotive industry, but also sectors like renewable energy sources or the construction machinery industry with microlayer corrosion protection systems by the subsidiary Dörken MKS-Systeme.

TOP 100: the competition
Since 1993, compamedia has been presenting the TOP 100 mark to medium-sized companies for outstanding innovation. Prof. Dr Nikolaus Franke has been the scientific director of the award since 2002. Dr. Franke is the founder and Managing Director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Vienna University of Economics and Business. Scientific journalist Ranga Yogeshwar is the mentor of TOP 100. Partners to the project are the Fraunhofer Society and the Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (BVMW). As media partners, the magazines Manager Magazin, impulse, and W&V, support the comparison of companies. For more information, see www.top100.de.

“The flood of information in the digital age is too much for many people. They only focus on news that confirms their views and shut out the others. And what’s more alarming is that we only receive pre-filtered information due to our various user profiles, which is often commercially influenced.

The freedom to form a true opinion falls by the wayside.

Daily newspapers can help counteract this. With broad-based reporting and in-depth background reports, they offer an opportunity to gain information objectively, develop new perspectives and expand horizons. 

As the ZEUS project gives young people just this freedom, Dörken Group is involved as a sponsor again this year.”

Thorsten Koch
CEO/Managing Director of Ewald Dörken AG

The Dörken Group companies will once again support the ‘Kindertafel der Evangelischen Jugend im Kirchenkreis Hagen’ food charity with its Christmas gift budget in 2018, too. It provides quick financial support for lunch in the open all-day schools for children whose parents ‘just about’ missed out on eligibility for state support via the Education and Participation Act, and otherwise would not be able to take part in their school’s common lunch – all without bureaucratic red tapes. The Kindertafel also allows children and young people in Herdecke, Wetter, Hagen and Breckerfeld to participate in educational leisure activities and additional support programmes, e.g. language learning and language practice. In this way, it reaches many children of refugees and new immigrants, making an important contribution to integration and a culture of hospitality. The company’s employees and customers are delighted to provide support for this work with the donation of € 25,000 to the Kindertafel for the fourth year now.

The ‘125 Years of Dörken’ anniversary year brought many major events, shared experiences and emotions. / 2017 also called for major efforts in an increasingly difficult market environment. 

The ‘125 Years of Dörken’ anniversary year is coming to a close at the end of 2017. “It was a year of unforgettable moments related to our big anniversary celebration, with many emotions and shared memories,” says Thorsten Koch, CEO of Ewald Dörken AG, at the year-end assembly on 14 December 2017 in the Werner Richard Hall, chaired by Works Council Chairman Andreas Haase and Deputy Works Council Chairman Hans-Georg Kollotzek. However, 2017 was also a year in which Dörken Group had to undertake great efforts to ensure its competitiveness.

In particular, the construction-dependent business units once again faced a very reserved market environment this year. That applies in particular for the refurbishment and renovation sector. This also affects the construction paints, but primarily the composite membranes. The company’s classic core business, energy efficient refurbishment of pitched roofs, has been in decline for years and gabled roofs are currently less popular in new builds. Compounding this issue is the lack of resources in the trades and – for all business segments – overall increase in the degree of competition with a high pricing pressure in a tough cost situation due to increasing prices of key raw materials. The growth targets could not be reached with strategic measures and internal optimisation, together with new innovative products with which the companies in Dörken Group made a good impression on the market and succeeded in defending their market shares. At the end of the day, however, the company earned a sufficient profit. Dörken MKS-Systeme contributed to this with its main sales market in the automotive industry, which benefited from the high capacity utilisation of processing companies in the bulk goods sector not only in the German-speaking countries, but also in Italy.

“We look toward the new year with optimism, and hope not only for new stimuli from the market, but also especially from our strategic measures and our innovativeness,” says Thorsten Koch. “We will continue develop new technologies, set standards and launch products with unique benefits.” The anniversary motto will also hold true in particular far beyond the ‘125 Years of Dörken’: ‘Keep moving!’

‘Dörken – Keep moving’ Under this motto, all Dörken employees practice the culture of the company on a daily basis. Many employees submit a large number of improvement proposals and innovative ideas every year via an active internal proposal system. In this way, improvements are often implemented rapidly and without bureaucratic red tapes, and processes and products are optimised. Overall, 340 improvement proposals were submitted. Some employees submitted a particularly large number and extremely effective proposals, and thus contributed directly to the bottom line and security at Dörken. As a result, Thorsten Koch presented the Golden DÖrki for the ‘Improvement proposal’ category at the year-end assembly again this year. Mr Ivanic from the Production department at Dörken GmbH & Co. KG took first place, followed by Mr Concas and Mr Kruska. Like a start-up, Dörken has been developing innovative products for 125 years, and this year the CD-Color team succeeded in establishing the CWS WERTLACK® SatiFixx product on the market. As a result, Mr Koch presented the second Golden DÖrki for the ‘Product Idea’ category to the entire CD-Color team. Benedikt Müller-Wortmann and Bernd von Pachelbel accepted the award on behalf of the two teams. The two DÖrkis were once again presented to particularly dedicated and successful employees. A tradition that drives creativity and innovative spirit.

A comprehensive profile of DÖRKENGROUP (roughly 1,500 words) is available for you here. If you have any questions, please get in touch with our press contact:

You can download a short profile of DÖRKENGROUP (approx. 250 words) here. 

Statement by Thorsten Koch, CEO of Ewald Dörken AG, on the ‘125 Years of Dörken’ anniversary.

Statement by Karl E. Dörken, former member of the Management Board, Partner and Supervisory Board of Ewald Dörken AG, on the ‘125 Years of Dörken’ anniversary.