Wiesentheid – Oberschleißheim
For the second time after 2017, the company Göpfert GmbH was awarded the “Bavaria’s Best 50” award. For this reason, Mrs. Esther Göpfert and Mr. André Göpfert, representing the company, received this award in the form of a white and blue porcelain lion from the hands of Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger at a ceremony in Oberschleißheim Palace on 26 July 2022.
The Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs has been honouring medium-sized companies with this award for 21 years for their long-term growth in the number of employees and turnover. In addition, innovative economic efficiency and social responsibility are evaluated.
Göpfert supplies special machines for processing corrugated board all over the world and is known as a premium manufacturer for particularly high-quality, durable and individually customised systems. Göpfert Maschinen GmbH designs, manufactures and assembles exclusively in Wiesentheid and is now one of the largest employers in the district.
After almost doubling the turnover from 2011 in 2017 and increasing the number of employees by 100 skilled workers to 375, the company already employs 415 people in 2021 with a further growth in turnover of 40 percent.
In order to be able to cope with this growth in terms of space, a fully automated high-bay warehouse with 10,000 storage locations, a large assembly hall for eight machine lines, three warehouses and a new sales and training centre were put into operation in 2017 after a construction period of only 12 months.
In 2019, the purchase of an adjacent plot of land enabled the start of construction of Plant II with 10,000 sqm of hall space. An additional assembly hall with space for another 4 machine lines was completed in 2021.
In order to be able to further increase in-house production, a new hall is currently being built, which is to be put into operation this year.
Göpfert is also innovative and future-oriented when it comes to energy supply and already invested in a sustainable heating concept in 2017. The Göpfert company also secures its power supply with its own photovoltaic systems on almost all roof surfaces.
“Medium-sized companies in particular have a strong economic and social significance in our society,” says the prospectus for the award ceremony of the Bavarian State Ministry of Economic Affairs and Media, Energy and Technology. However, they are usually overshadowed by the large German global companies. In order to counteract this fact, Göpfert has been committed to vocational training at an above-average level for decades. Already in 2017, among other things, with new social rooms, the possibility was created that female trainees can also learn an industrial profession without restrictions.
Göpfert also maintains close contact with the universities of applied sciences in Schweinfurt and Aschaffenburg to make graduates aware of the attractiveness of working in a family business and the career opportunities.
In 2022, the company again looks with pride at the graduations of its apprentices, who, as in previous years, completed their apprenticeships with outstanding achievements and awards.
Even though it is becoming increasingly demanding to recruit apprentices, the excellent training in a wide range of specialist areas and the high takeover rate with exciting career prospects are reasons that make an apprenticeship at Göpfert Maschinen GmbH extremely attractive. At the same time, this ensures the company a consistently high level of quality in the development and manufacture of its machines.
