IPS Software and Druckerei Wolf receive awards
Despite economic difficulties, they have both staged remarkable comebacks and have now been rewarded for their efforts. At the "Phoenix – Company of the Year in Rhineland-Palatinate" competition, two companies from the region beat the competition to receive a prize, which was awarded by the Minister of Economic Affairs, Hans-Artur Bauckhage. In the category "Comeback of the Year", IPS Software GmbH achieved second place, while the Wolf printing press based in Ingelheim came third.
"The tremendous response to this competition proves not only that our state is home to a wide range of very healthy industries, but is also testament to how companies can rescue themselves from the depths of an economic trough to achieve great success", said Bauckhage.
Take IPS, for example. As a software developer and IT service provider, the company faced serious economic hardship after the collapse of the Internet boom. But, under its own steam, the company last year achieved its best results since it was founded 17 years ago. Among other things, it formed new partnerships, established a new line of business, and opened a branch office in Munich.
At the end of the 1990s, the Wolf printing press suffered a significant loss of sales in the face of a major slump in the printing and media industry. In response, the company elaborated two strategies. It realigned itself as a printing services company alongside its regular role as a printing press, thereby enabling it to tap into new areas of business. The company has reaped the benefits of this for the past two years and is now Germany's largest producer of stock exchange listing reports and the largest provider of stationery products in the Rhine-Main region.
Hans-Joachim Metternich, spokesman for the executive board of the Investment and Structure Bank, was delighted with the company's entrepreneurial achievement: "It requires not only courage but also the know-how to make the right decisions and, if necessary, seek the necessary support."
Mainzer Rhein Zeitung
02/14/2006