An employee of the Wuerth Group works in the voice operated order processing center in the logistics center in Kuenzelsau, Germany, May 7, 2013. [Photo/IC]

Growth without profit 'fatal', German firm's boss says

Reinhold Wuerth is a successful entrepreneur and sports all-rounder. The boss of the German family-owned The Wuerth Group swims, hikes and bikes.

The 79-year-old flew his own plane to China last year to visit the company's factory in Shenyang.

The Wuerth Group provides automotive maintenance supplies, assembly and fastening materials. In its 2013 financial year sales were 9.74 billion euros ($13.35 billion).

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In China, the group has five subsidiaries; in Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Shenyang. It runs a sales and services network in more than 100 cities.

"In five to 20 years from now, I am sure the Chinese market will be a substantial part of Wuerth," he said. "We are always sending money to invest more and to improve,"

The company's sales will quintuple last year's 141.9 million euros by 2018.

"His personality and strength is unique and a great treasure for all 60,000 employees worldwide," Christoph Ladurner, CEO of Wuerth Line Companies, Greater China, said. "China is an emerging market where Wuerth is looking forward to further expansion and prosperity."

A new Wuerth chemical factory was established in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, at the end of 2013 with investment of $20 million.

Expansion is not easy. In 1945, Adolf Wuerth GmbH & Co KG, the parent company of The Wuerth Group, was founded by Adolf Wuerth in Germany. After his father's death in 1954, Reinhold Wuerth, aged 19, took over the company and turned the two-man business into a worldwide operation.

Wuerth said 70 percent of his company's success is due to corporate culture.

"From the beginning, I started letting my employees know how highly I evaluate the performance of our partners, our distributors and our employees," Wuerth said.