Important Business Prize for a Leading Hose Manufacturer with Tradition

NORRES, a leading manufacturer of industrial hoses and flexible hose system solutions has been awarded the 2013 Grand Prize for Small and Medium-sized Businesses (Grosser Preis des Mittelstandes).  From a total of 4035 companies nominated, the Oskar Patzelt Foundation honoured NORRES on 21 September 2013 as a company that is able to look back on a long tradition in Stadthafen in Gelsenkirchen that is steeped in tradition.

No other business competition in Germany attracts such a major resonance lasting for so many years as this prize that is now being awarded for the 19th time. The distinction is awarded by the jury for superb performance by a small or medium-sized business such as NORRES this year. After the success of the 2011 distinction as finalist of the competition, the long-established company from Gelsenkirchen is receiving this year’s prize in the highest category, as the “2013 Grand Prize of Small and Medium-sized Business”.

Prize for the Entire Company

“By means of consistency and insisting that we belong to the best, NORRES is attaining its goals – nationally and globally. At NORRES, we see, for ourselves, this consistency as a distinction and confirmation, as a strategy of a technical trendsetter and of a technology leader of hoses and flexible hose system solutions, combined with operative excellence for our customers, as well as sustainability,” said owner and managing director Burkhard Mollen after the prize-awarding ceremony. He views the prize as the entire workforce’s reward for motivated, future-oriented work that is also focussed upon having a strategically lasting effect.

Five Categories for the Distinction

The Grand Prize of Small and Medium-sized Businesses assesses the company in its entirety as well as in its role within society. NORRES had to rise to the challenge in a total of five categories. Along with the overall development, the creation and securing of jobs and training positions count, as well as the aspects of modernization and innovation. Also, commitment to the region is equally considered as a criterion for the prize, as well as decisive entrepreneurial aspects such as service, customer proximity, and marketing. In these categories, the company that is steeped in tradition was able to convince the jury as a trendsetter and technological leader in the field of technical hoses. “After the 2011 award as a finalist in the competition, it was a great honour to win the prize of the highest category of the competition”, says Burkhard Mollen.

Look to the Future

NORRES looks upon this prize as being a further confirmation of its strategy: solid growth and quality, as well as customer service and innovative solutions in the segment area of technical hose systems. “We will continue growing, and we will adhere to our motto: Simply Flexible”, said Burkhard Mollen. With the 2013 Grand Prize of Small and Medium-sized Businesses, a strengthened NORRES is heading into the 2014 anniversary year, during which the company will celebrate its 125th birthday.

With seven locations worldwide and manufacturing sites in Gelsenkirchen and Asia, NORRES, with over 200 employees, is a globally oriented medium-sized company.

(Picture: Boris Löffert)