Alfred Keller and Herbert Forker honored as “Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016”

Last week the auditing and consultancy company EY (formerly Ernst & Young) accoladed Germany’s best mid-sized enterprises for the 20th time. The “Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016” award is an acknowledgement of entrepreneurship, innovation strength and personal commitment. This year Alfred Keller, Siegwerk’s owner and Supervisory Board Chairman, and Herbert Forker, CEO of Siegwerk, won the jury over and were accoladed as the winners of the “Industry” category at the awards ceremony in Berlin on November 18, 2016.

“It is a great honor for us to accept the ‘Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016’ award. This motivates us to continue the entrepreneurial journey that we have embarked upon and to leave no stone unturned in actioning our vision of transforming our company into the world’s best manufacturer of packaging printing inks”, says Herbert Forker, CEO at Siegwerk. “A special thank you goes primarily to our employees around the world, who put their heart and soul every day into making our company even better”, adds Alfred Keller, Siegwerk’s Supervisory Board Chairman.

Following a multi-stage selection procedure, Siegwerk qualified as one of 35 finalists in this competition. All the mid-sized enterprises nominated are characterized by their power of innovation, a strong sense of customer loyalty, efficient organizational structures, flexibility and adaptability as well as a high degree of corporate social responsibility.

Under the leadership of Keller and Forker Siegwerk has advanced from being a provider of printing inks for print media to a leading international manufacturer of printing inks for packaging applications. The company’s senior management has always focused on successful trends and its innovations have enabled the printing industry to progress. Despite its internationalization strategy, the company still retains the benefits of a family-run business to this day – independence, focus, flexibility, expertise, commitment and reliability. The company embodies a successful mix of a practiced awareness of traditions and a forward-looking vision.

As a family business Siegwerk always bears coming generations in mind. Sustainable, profitable growth has a much higher priority than short-term profit maximization. Since its establishment in 1824, Siegwerk has always taken responsibility, which goes beyond the scope of its actual business activities, and it supports for example global projects designed to benefit young people and children. The company’s “Ink, Heart & Soul” philosophy is put into practice every day at Siegwerk.

About the “Entrepreneur Of The Year” Competition
The “Entrepreneur Of The Year” award accolades supreme entrepreneurial achievements around the world in more than 60 countries. In Germany this accolade was awarded for the 20th time in 2016. An independent jury selects the winners in the various categories as well as one honorary award winner. One of the winners also gets the chance to represent Germany on the international stage – in the contest to become “World Entrepreneur Of The Year”, an event that is annually hosted in Monte Carlo. In Germany this EY-organized competition is sponsored by well-known companies and media, including LGT Bank, Jaguar Land Rover, the strategic communications consultancy CNC as well as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and manager magazin. In addition to accolading successful entrepreneurs, EY also fosters next generations of entrepreneurs with its “EY NextGen Academy” program.

For more information about EY visit: http://www.ey.com/home