- 1 -

Facts for the Press

Date: 07-07-2008

Editors:Torben Nakoinz, Dagmar Riefer

Ewald Dörken AG among the 100 most innovative enterprises in the SME sector

Lothar Späth awards 'Top 100' quality seal to the Herdecke-based family-owned enterprise

Together with its four subsidiaries, Ewald Dörken AG is one of the 100 most innovative enterprises in the German SME sector. In the 16thround of the renowned 'Top 100' benchmark test, its systematic, well-reasoned and correspondingly successful innovation management carried the day. On Friday, July 4, the former minister president of Baden-Württemberg, Lothar Späth, awarded the coveted 'Top 100' quality seal to the Herdecke-based company at a ceremony held at the Meilenwerk in Düsseldorf.

The mentor of the SME project was paying tribute to the achievements of the Dörken Group in each of the five key categories, 'Top Management Support for Innovation', 'Innovation Climate', 'Innovative Processes and Organisation', 'Innovation Marketing', and 'Innovation Success'. With a sales volume of around 250 million Euros in 2007 and a corporate history that stretches over 150 years, the family-owned company that symbolises the best tradition of the SME sector produces laminated construction sheets, house paints, paste systems, and micro-layer anti-corrosion systems. The quality seal was mainly awarded for the company's outstanding innovation management which reconciles continuity with change. The company is active all over Europe, and some of its divisions even operate worldwide. Most of the sales volume of 2007 was generated from improved products and innovations, such as paste systems tailored for use in decentralised POS mixing machines.

Nothing is left to chance

The essential monitoring tools used by the company to identify potentially innovative ideas include ongoing market, competition, and technology analyses as well as regular customer surveys, visits to trade fairs, and literature and patent searches. 'This is extremely important to us, for we need to respond immediately to new developments in the house-paint market by adapting our paste systems,' says Hans-Achim Brand, managing director of PROTEC® Systempasten GmbH. 'One case in point is the VOC directive whose new standards for 2010 have been keeping our development department busy for quite some time. This is why we are even now launching our DecoTint® classic product range which meets the requirements of 2010.'

Another product of this forward-looking philosophy is DecoTint® edition1 which, launched on the market as early as 2005, quickly turned into a money-spinner for Dörken's youngest subsidiary. Why? Its pastes are VOC-free and, what is more, they open up a near-limitless range of brilliant tints for a wide product spectrum. Only 16 pastes serve to tint both water-based and solvent-based products. A veritable two-in-one solution.

To exchange knowledge and experience across national borders and to identify potential future projects and innovations, Ewald Dörken AG uses a dedicated database system that is highly customer-oriented, not least thanks to the monitoring tools described above. Furthermore, the management of the Dörken Group employs a standing innovation council composed of members of the board and the management as well as temporary innovation teams from different departments to support innovation.

A long path

To receive the 'Top 100' award, the family-owned enterprise had to pass a strict two-stage examination conducted by the Economic University of Vienna. The innovative strength of each contestant is evaluated by Professor Dr Nikolaus Franke, who selects the top 100 among them. This year's 'Top 100' include 49 national and 17 world market leaders. As the benchmark study of the researchers in Vienna documents, the 'Top 100' occupy an exceptional position in other respects as well. According to the study, the innovations of the 'Top 100' are about twice as successful as those of the SMEs in the reference group. 67% of their profit is generated from innovations and innovative improvements made in the last 3 years, as opposed to 35% in the structurally identical reference sample. 58% of the 'Top 100' have their own in-house venture capital, meaning money that is available to employees to pursue their own innovative ideas. Among the 'average SMEs' surveyed, that figure is as low as 2%. 'This figure impressed me greatly, although it did not surprise me. After all, you need to be willing to take certain risks if you want to launch radical innovations successfully,' as Professor Franke says.

The pride the people in Herdecke feel in belonging to the 'Top 100' is all the greater for that, as Karl E. Dörken, member of the board of Ewald Dörken AG, confirms: 'We now belong to the most innovative enterprises in the German SME sector. This tells us that we are on the right path.'

Box

All 100 enterprises are presented in 'Top100 – the 100 most innovative enterprises in the SME sector', a book edited by Lother Späth, as well as on the website The SME initiative is organised by compamedia GmbH in Überlingen. All in all, 342 enterprises applied for the 'Top 100' title this year. The next round of the renowned SME prize will begin in September 2008.

Further information: PROTEC® Systempasten GmbH, Wetterstraße 58, D-58313 Herdecke; phone +49/2330/926-432; fax +49/2330/926-236; email: ; Torben Nakoinz at compamedia, phone 07551/94986-31, fax 07551/94986-39, email: ,

Photo and caption

You can download the photo in this press release as well as the text file from To do so, please click on 'info center' and select 'press'.