New award for strength in innovation

Forming specialist Bilstein & Siekermann^® is now ‘Innovator 2018’

Bilstein & Siekermann GmbH + Co. KG (BSH) has already received numerous awards for its innovative capacity as a manufacturer of complex formed parts. In 2018, this company from Hillesheim was officially declared to be one of the most innovative companies in Germany and is entitled to use the ‘Innovator of the Year 2018’ quality mark as a word-picture trademark. On the initiative of the business magazine ‘brand eins 1 Wissen’ and the company Statista GmbH, Bilstein & Siekermann^® has now received this quality label, which is only awarded to a few of many thousands of companies. This is the third time that the prize has been awarded.

For the current ranking, Statista and brand eins had asked more than 1,900 representatives of innovation-award-winning companies, around 400 experts from the Berlin Institute for Innovation and Technology (iit), and also almost 20,000 managers of an expert panel for their opinion. The ratings from all three groups resulted in a leader board of top scores. This leader board comprises a total of 496 companies from the whole Germany, which can be assigned to 20 different industries – and Bilstein & Siekermann^® is one of these top companies. Specifically, BSH received its award in the category ‘Suppliers of Automotive & Commercial Vehicles’.

“The award demonstrates once again that our company is at the forefront of intelligent and innovative processes, products and services,” said Bilstein & Siekermann^® Managing Director, Bruno Hirtz. “We are very proud of this recognition for our innovation and our strength lies in the close integration of development and engineering design with state-of-the-art production processes,” says Hirtz.

The forming specialist manufactures approximately 2,000 different products – cold forming parts and turned parts – which are used in various industries, including automotive, mechanical and plant engineering. The portfolio includes screw plugs and sleeves, screws and bolts, as well as high-tech and complex turned parts manufactured on CNC and cam-controlled lathes. The distinctive feature of Bilstein & Siekermann^®'s production method is cold forming, which, depending on the component geometry, significantly reduces the consumption of raw materials compared to conventional cutting methods. At Bilstein & Siekermann^® this technology is called BSH cold forming^®. Accordingly, the company’s machine park also incorporates state-of-the-art, electronically controlled cold forming presses.

Incidentally, ‘Innovator of the Year 2018’ is not the first award for innovation capability recently received by this medium-sized company from the Volcanic Eifel region: Last year, it won the TOP 100 Award, one of the most important awards for innovative small and medium-sized businesses. Bilstein & Siekermann^® has also been nominated for one of Germany's most prestigious business prices – the Grand Prix of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises – and even made the final round in 2016. “We, and the entire team, are delighted that Bilstein & Siekermann^® is a successful and innovative company and that its is well positioned to meet the challenges of the future in so many ways,” comments Managing Director Bruno Hirtz.

The company - Bilstein & Siekermann^®

Bilstein & Siekermann GmbH + Co. KG (BSH) from Hillesheim in the Volcanic Eifel region, was founded in 1956 and manufactures complex metal formed parts, including various screws, bolts and shells. These cold-forming parts and turned parts are used in the automotive industry as well as in the mechanical and plant engineering industry. BSH generates annual sales of approximately EUR 24 million. In 2015, the Chinese subsidiary Bilstein & Siekermann Cold Forming (Taicang) Co., Ltd. was founded to manufacture locally for the Asian market. Since 2003, the company has been owned by INDUS Holding AG, which is listed on the SDax and is based in Bergisch Gladbach.