Dear friends and business partners,

perhaps you have followed from the press the flood event in various parts of Germany. Unfortunately, this time it also hit our company hard. We were under water on approx. 7,200 of 8,000 sqm production area with approx. 250 mm height. The maximum outside level was 520 mm at our measuring point 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.

With some collegues we spent the night from Wednesday, July 14 to Thursday, July 15 together in the company and fought all together against the flood. However, we could not prevent the water from entering. All machine, robots and inventory were under water with 250 mm. 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 early morning until Saturday afternoon prevented the damage from getting any worse and made it possible for us to continue as a company at all. We were well organized from Thursday morning on and through a tremendous and exemplary effort by our employees, as well as help from many outside friends and companies, we were very quickly restored to power, cleaning machines, pumps, rust preventative/cleaning supplies, sweepers, air dryers, heating repair, blowers, lights, etc. We were thus able to supply not only ourselves, but also the surrounding houses with power and infrastructure again, so that they could also save their belongings - as far as possible.

Just one week after the flooding, we were back in production. That means we went from 40% to 80% productivity over the course of the following week and were able to focus on our work at least 90% of the time by the week after.

We will continue to feel the aftermath of this event for quite some time, as some offices will need to be completely refurbished and new office furniture purchased. However, the most important thing in this situation is that all computers, machines and robots are already fully running again, we had no data loss and all productive departments were able to work again after a short time.

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

Many of you have contacted us, supported us or offered support. This reaction and participation have made us very happy, motivated and extremely moved. The Berger company remains an independent, reliable and innovative partner for you and is proud and happy to have such partners like you.

Many greetings from Wuppertal-Kohlfurth

Dr. Andreas Groß and Marco Chiesura