Bechtle comes out 1st at Top 500 Awards
- Jury recognises sustainable growth
- 2nd award from DIE WELT and Accenture within two years
Neckarsulm, 28 October 2020 – Bechtle AG ranked 1st place at the annual Top 500 Awards presented by German daily DIE WELT and consulting firm Accenture. Following a second place the year before, the award jury once again recognised the IT company’s outstanding growth against a field of corporate groups in Germany. Besides a sustainable and dynamic growth trajectory, the prize takes into account criteria that reflect the winning organisations’ future-oriented strategy.
In the second consecutive year, a jury consisting of leading figures in their fields bestowed a Top 500 award on Bechtle AG. After coming in second the year before, 2020 saw Bechtle come out top among the three companies recognised with the award at the WELT Transformation Summit held on 27 October in Berlin, followed by Sick AG in second place, and Sixt SE ranking third. Consultancy company, Accenture, and newspaper, DIE WELT have been publishing their list of Germany’s 500 largest corporations for the last twelve years, with a jury naming three growth champions among them every year.
“We are very proud to be once again recognised with this award. It underscores the excellent performance our employees deliver as a team year after year, across the Bechtle Group in 14 European countries. At the same time, it is a striking affirmation of our strategy that is designed to secure our success as a business for years to come,” says Dr Thomas Olemotz, CEO, Bechtle AG.
Professor Ann-Kristin Achleitner, member of the Top 500 jury and holder of the KfW foundation chair of Entrepreneurial Finance at TU Munich, stressed in her laudatory speech Bechtle’s well-balanced growth strategy, as well as the particular significance of its history as a university spin-off gone corporate group that’s successful on an international scale. “To me, this illustrates very well the way this ecosystem encourages innovation—through the symbiosis of university and business, but also through the links of the founding family with an exceptional external management team and the capital market.”
Varied criteria of success
In order to qualify for a nomination, organisations must present five annual accounts over the course of the last six years showing positive growth. In addition, the jury, which is made up of leading economic experts, takes into account such criteria as innovation, robust and value-added business models, sustainable integration of acquired companies, and successful globalisation strategies.
2019 was one of the most successful fiscal years in the history of Bechtle AG, with revenues climbing 24.3% to some 5.37 bn euros—the second strongest rate in the past 15 years. For the first time, that year saw Bechtle generate more than 2 bn euros in revenues outside Germany in a single fiscal year.
Press Release
Dr Thomas Olemotz