BORCO HÖHNS informs CDU top candidate and Minister of Economic Affairs about current investments in the future l Stationary high-tech energy storage system ESAVE central building block of the energy turnaround at the “Company with a Future 2021” l Althusmann: “Actively tackle transformation in times of dwindling resources”.
The management of BORCO HÖHNS, industry and innovation leader for vehicles and solutions for mobile sales, informed Dr Bernd Althusmann, the CDU’s top candidate for the Lower Saxony state parliament and the state’s Minister for Economics, Labour, Transport and Digitalisation, about the family-owned company’s current future investments in the environment, social issues and good corporate governance. The Member of the State Parliament for the constituency of Rotenburg (Wümme), Eike Holsten, accompanied Althusmann.
“We are taking our energy supply into our own hands, investing almost two million euros again in the current business year in order to produce our own energy in the future and to continue to conserve resources,” the managing director of BORCO HÖHNS, Andreas Elsäßer, explained to the guests. “We currently calculate that this investment will pay for itself within three years”:
The central building block of the energy turnaround at the “Company with a Future 2021” is the stationary high-tech energy storage system ESAVE from the Lower Saxony sister company STODIA. With ESAVE, BORCO HÖHNS ensures an above-average battery storage solution on a leasing basis with an outstanding service life and operational reliability as well as high safety and availability through diagnosis and service.
The 3,000 square metre (sqm) photovoltaic system will initially make BORCO HÖHNS two-thirds independent of external power supply, despite its high electricity consumption of almost 700,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year. This investment is seen as the first step towards being able to generate electricity self-sufficiently in the future. Further investments in more fuel-efficient gas burners for the paint shop and the insulation of the factory halls are also intended to significantly reduce gas consumption. In the past business year, BORCO HÖHNS had already invested almost two million euros in a new, energy-saving wood processing centre and in the industry’s first digitalised, fully automated and energy-saving area warehouse. This will enable the company to produce much more efficiently and with less resource consumption than before.
Althusmann was “very, very impressed” by the implementation strength of the entire workforce: “We are all currently experiencing a break with previous certainties at first hand. In view of the competitive and cost pressures caused by dwindling resources, a country of medium-sized companies must also actively tackle the necessary transformation.” BORCO HÖHNS is a role model for daring to break new ground.
Even before the company holidays in 2022, the management of BORCO HÖHNS had signed an innovative company agreement with the responsible IG Metall trade union in Bremen on a pilot test in a medium-sized production company that is unique in Germany: From 1 September 2022, the 4.5-day week will be introduced at BORCO HÖHNS in Rotenburg (Wümme) in a first step.
With full wage compensation, there will be no production on Fridays in odd-numbered weeks; in even-numbered weeks, work will continue for five hours on Fridays as before. Mondays to Thursdays will generally be worked 8.5 hours instead of eight during the twelve-month pilot project. The company agreement applies in principle to the total of 240 employees of BORCO HÖHNS, exceptions for operationally necessary tasks in sales or customer service are regulated in the company agreement.
“BORCO HÖHNS has convinced us all along the line today,” commented the Rotenburg member of the state parliament Holsten on the one and a half hour visit. “We need entrepreneurs who rise to the challenge of bringing forward the best possible ideas and technologies.”
About BORCO HÖHNS
Founded in 1954 as a factory for agricultural and car trailers, BORCO HÖHNS is today the undisputed market and innovation leader in mobile sales in Germany. At the headquarters in Rotenburg an der Wümme, the mobile sales vehicles and trailers are completely designed and manufactured in the company’s own vehicle plant. BORCO HÖHNS employs a good 240 people, and the company recently generated annual sales of almost 40 million euros. The equity ratio is over 50 percent. Extensive quality controls and extensive testing ensure maximum functionality, reliability and value. Each of the approximately 400 BORCO HÖHNS vehicles that can be produced annually is therefore an investment that pays off: Whether a low-cost entry-level vehicle or a high-quality individual model. More than 10,000 BORCO HÖHNS customers – from traditional family businesses to young food truckers – trust in the quality and innovative strength of the industry leader.
Photos: Thorsten Finner
Rotenburg (Wümme), 22 August 2022
