COMPANY PROFILE

Nature of Business

Kärcher is a leading worldwide provider of cleaning technology. In 2017 the family company achieved the highest turnover in its history of EUR 2.5 billion. With high pressure cleaner    and ultra-high pressure cleaners, vacuum and steam cleaners, pumps for the home and garden, sweepers and scrubber-driers, car washes, cleaning products, dry ice shot-blast machines, drinking and waste water treatment plants, water dispensers and electronic data transmission based fleet management, Kärcher offers innovative solutions to problems. They include coordinated products and accessories together with advice and service.

Alfred Kärcher GmbH & Co. KG employs over 12,300 employees in 67 countries in more than 110 companies. There are more than 50,000 service offices throughout the world to provide a consistent level of support. Innovation is the most important growth factor for the company: Approximately 90 percent of all the products are five years old or less. Overall, more than 1,000 employees work in research and development at the cleaning machines manufacturer.

Innovation has been a major part of the company’s culture since it was founded in 1935. The engineer and passionate inventor Alfred Kärcher looked for solutions to technical problems with creativity and a spirit of innovation. However, in doing so he never overlooked responsibility for the needs of his employees.

To this day, business success for Kärcher means: above-average investment in research and development, the latest production methods, and both high-quality and advanced training for its employees. At the same time, Kärcher participates in the community outside its everyday work by supporting cultural events or social facilities. For more than eight years it has been equipping SOS children’s villages with cleaning equipment and building green filter plants together with the Global Nature Fund in developing and emerging nations.

As part of its cultural sponsorship programme, Kärcher has cleaned over 140 monuments worldwide since 1980. These include the colonnades in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro, the Colossi of Memnon in Luxor, Upper Egypt, which are over 3,300 years old, and the sculptures of the heads of presidents at Mount Rushmore. The cleaning work always takes place in close collaboration with monument protection officials restorers and art historians.