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NEWS AND INFORMATION WINTER | SPRING 2007 FOR OUR PARTNERS IN THE RETAIL TRADE WWW WANZL WORLDWIDE Responsible management The right balance WANZL WORLDWIDE WINTER | SPRING 2007 EDITORIAL EDITORIAL The cover story of the latest edition of the WANZL WORLDWIDE magazine concerns corporate responsibility for the environment. Economics and ecology can be complementary if the company’s guiding principles include clearly defined environmental management. That is why, two years ago, Wanzl began to combine quality and environmental manage- ment in a single certification system. Wanzl has enhanced its visual presentation with a new corporate style and a clear positioning of its seven business areas. On the basis of these intensified corporate activities, Wanzl is currently investing around €16 million in order to add 21,000 sq. m. of production space to its main plant in Germany. Further expansion work is also under way in China and the UK, and the site in the Czech Republic was expanded by 8,500 sq. m. last year. These investments give Wanzl a long-term guarantee of worldwide delivery capability and punctuality across all product groups, and provide customers with optimum on-site service. You will also find useful information on innovative solutions and products for the world of retailing, such as the new trange of shopping trolleys for people with disability. In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act is already in force, with retailers being required to provide the same level of service for people with disability as for all other customers. Retailers in other European countries can also expect legal changes concerning their provisions for physically disabled customers in the not-too-distant future. Wanzl celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. We would like to thank you for the close and equitable partnership and fruitful co-operation. We hope that, as a customer, you will continue to put your trust in Wanzl’s products and services in the future. Happy reading! Gottfried Wanzl www – wanzl worldwide Edited by: Wanzl-Marketing, PRESSE & mehr The customer magazine of Wanzl Metallwarenfabrik GmbH Design / Layout: LIQUID – Agentur für Gestaltung, Augsburg Translation: English Experts, Munich Published by: Photos: Wanzl Metallwarenfabrik GmbH, Ahold CZ, Bundesverband Deutscher Wanzl Metallwarenfabrik GmbH – Bubesheimer Straße 4 Heimwerker-, Bau- und Gartenfachmärkte e.V. (BHB), Dovile Cizaite (cover picture), 89340 Leipheim – Germany EHI Retail Institute, European DIY-Retail Association (EDRA), Firma Max Gründl, Phone +49(0)8221/729-0 – Fax +49(0)8221/729-100 Getty Images Inc., Gottlieb Duttweiler Institut, Greiner B.V. Blumendirekthandel, [email protected] – www.wanzl.com HORNBACH-Baumarkt-AG, Juan Torrent Almela, Keck & Lang GmbH, McFit Fitness GmbH, METRO Group, Microsoft Corporation, Naturata Spielberger AG, OBI Bau- und Heimwerkermärkte GmbH & Co. Franchise Center KG, Oliver Hadji, Origin Energy / Australia, PixelQuelle GmbH, Shop Project Mailand, Zukunftsinstitut GmbH ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT WANZL WORLDWIDE WINTER | SPRING 2007 Standards Economics and ecology are compatible As a company with clear ethical principles, Wanzl has developed management guidelines which combine entrepreneurial progress with innovation regarding the protection of the environment. Wanzl is environmentally certified in accordance with DIN-EN-ISO 14001. This ensures that the standards governing its actions and the resulting company-wide processes are focused consistently on the environment, conservation of resources and protection of people. Once a year, Wanzl undergoes an intensive audit in which the values achieved are compared to the targets specified in the environ- mental business plan. Wanzl is an outstanding ‘ecoprofit company’ with its commitment to reduce the consumption of energy, water and raw materials and at the same time to minimise waste. For example, Wanzl uses collected rainwater at its production sites. The waste heat from the water used to cool the machinery is used to heat the company’s buildings. The water is then purified to produce drinking water which meets the strict requirements of the German drinking water regulations and the European drinking water directive. Alternatively, the used water is returned W THE WATER USED in the production to the company’s internal production cycle. Each year, process at Wanzl is recycled into drinking water approximately 10,000 cubic metres of drinking water is in accordance with strict legal requirements or saved as a result of water recycling. What is more, Wanzl alternatively is returned to the production has also cut its water requirement by almost 40 percent process. in the past three years by using the most up-to-date O WANZL is environmentally certified and an production processes. outstanding ‘ecoprofit company’. Even the energy-intensive galvanising process is managed Wanzl also gives priority to environmental interests in a way that conserves resources. in other production processes. For example, environ- mentally friendly hydroelectric power plants generate a I HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANTS – quarter of the required electricity. By using the latest suppliers of environmentally friendly energy to manufacturing processes and CAD and CAM techniques, Wanzl. it has been possible to reduce the waste rate applying to the annual 70,000 tonnes of raw material such as steel ENVIRONMENT SERIES and plastics to 0.05 percent. All waste products are As part of a regular series, forth- recycled so that they can re-enter the production process coming editions of WANZL in a way that protects the environment and conserves WORLDWIDE will include informa- resources. « tion on Wanzl’s commitment to the environment. The focus will be on subjects such as environmentally friendly production processes, savings of raw materials, the use of renewable energies and recycling processes in the company’s operations. 4 WANZL WORLDWIDE WINTER | SPRING 2007 THINK-TANK ‘Cheap is good’ – and ‘cheap is not good’ The free flow of goods is the fuel that powers the of the globalisation bulldozer. Ten TV channels are better than five, bulldozer of globalisation. But what is cheap? What we 50 are better than 20, and 30 types of strawberry yoghurt are better than 15. When Boris Yeltsin visited the USA in 1989, he was are talking about is a fundamental attitude among frequently found in supermarkets. This was no coincidence, as he people at a time when everything they can have is intuitively recognised that they reflect the success of a nation. Without a wide range of cheap products, democracy will not func- available immediately and easily… and at a ‘good’ price. tion. Rough vodka or empty shelves are a sign of poverty and membership of the third world. Yeltsin was ashamed of the miserable range of consumer goods available in the Soviet Union at that time. The present preoccupation with discount and bargain Today we acknowledge that people who consume contentedly no hunting is a logical consequence of globalisation. It has its longer want to wage war. The significance of nations, ideologies origin in the satiated markets of Western civilisation. Never and visions fades into the background in favour of personal care, before have so many people stayed in five-star hotels, or self-fulfilment – and consequently more individual responsibility. travelled by air. And at the same time never before have so many people scrutinised the price of products and services. But when we say: ‘cheap is not good’, we also mean that When we say: ‘cheap is good’, we mean that the aspiring middle there is a downside to this trend. classes in countries such as China and now also India are becoming When the focus shifts to the lowest price to fulfil global consumer part of a global ‘dream community’, and will change the markets in dreams, bargain hunting becomes the dominant lifestyle – with all an unprecedented way. More people want to share in the consumer the consequences that this has on the production side. The fight goods produced on this earth – at crazy low prices! In countries in for resources is already under way, since it is impossible for everyone which democracy remains denied, greater choice in supermarkets to participate simultaneously to access a wide range of cheap and all kinds of shopping possibilities are producing ‘consumer goods. If the whole world were to consume energy and resources democracy’. Technology – the internet, mobile phones, e-mail, SMS – on the basis of the Western – or American model – a collapse would has brought the reality of prosperity and product choice even to the soon ensue. Low prices for increasing numbers of people will only most far-flung corners of the world. This stirs imagination, desire, work if cost structures are organised accordingly. When the dreams and illusions. Never before has it been so easy for people to purchasing conditions are right due to volume, and when workers’ obtain the products and services they want, giving rise to a feeling wages are correspondingly low. When order processes, supply chain that everything is available. We just have to ask for it. and customer care are as economical as possible. An average food product in the supermarket today travels around 2,000 kilometres. No-one will be able to stop this bulldozer of globalisation, Take the example of a snow shovel – its component parts will have fuelled by the promise of endless quantities of cheap travelled twice round the world before being put on sale in the products for very many people. finished product. This puts pressure on ecology, people, processes, Nilüfer Göle, the Turkish social scientist, has products, manufacturing and sales conditions – unprecedented in the pointed out that freedom of consumer seduction current form. Progress has its price – in all senses of the word. is at the heart of the modern world. Since more and more information is becoming available faster, Some time ago, big companies went through the game of more easily and cheaply, a virtual community ‘downsizing, outsourcing, off-shoring, rightsizing’, in order to of ‘wish people’ is emerging who are justifiably find out where and with what qualifications the cheapest dreaming of a better life.

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