Dear friends and business partners,

You may have followed the floods in various parts of Germany in the press. Unfortunately, our company was also badly affected in this case. Approx. 7,200 of our 8,000 square meters of production area were under water with a height of approx. 250 mm. The maximum external water level at our measuring point was 520 mm above our hall level, so it could have been even worse, as our hall doors and walls were able to keep the level inside at least 270 mm lower.

We spent the night from Wednesday, July 14 to Thursday, July 15 together with some colleagues in the company and fought the flood together. However, we were unable to prevent the water from entering. All the machines, robots and inventory were 250 mm under water. The situation on Thursday morning was catastrophic. The efforts of almost all employees who were not on vacation and friends of the company from Thursday morning until Saturday afternoon prevented the damage from getting any worse and made it possible for us to continue as a company. We organized ourselves well from Thursday morning and, thanks to the enormous and exemplary efforts of our employees and the help of many friends and companies from outside, we were able to get electricity, cleaning machines, pumps, rust protection/cleaning agents, sweepers, air dryers, heating repairs, fans, lighting, etc. back up and running very quickly. As a result, we were not only able to supply ourselves with electricity and infrastructure again, but also the surrounding houses, so that they were able to save their belongings as far as possible.

We were back in production just one week after the flooding. This means that we increased our productivity from 40% to 80% over the course of the following week and were able to concentrate on our work for at least 90% of the following week.

We will be feeling the after-effects of this event for some time to come, as some offices will have to be completely renovated and new office furniture procured. However, the most important thing in this situation is that all computers, machines and robots are already up and running again, we have had no loss of data and all productive departments were able to resume work after a short time.

First of all, we are very happy to have reached this situation after a very difficult week. This was not to be expected in the morning after the heavy rain.

Many of you have contacted us, supported us or offered your support. We were very pleased, motivated and moved by this response and participation. Berger remains an independent, reliable and innovative partner for you and is proud and happy to have partners like you.

Greetings from Wuppertal-Kohlfurth

Dr. Andreas Groß and Marco Chiesura