Bertrandt Cologne celebrates its ten-year anniversary

Thursday, 16 October 2003

The Cologne branch of Bertrandt, the development service provider, is celebrating its ten-year anniversary today by holding a special event for its customers. Peter Dorling, a member of the Bertrandt AG Board of Management, and Stephan Vogt, the managing director of Bertrandt Ingenieurbüro GmbH in Cologne, welcomed about 150 guests to the Bertrandt facility on the Feldkassel industrial estate, representatives of Bertrandt's many prominent business partners in the automotive industry. Mr Vogt stressed the importance of Cologne to his company as a business location. More than 300 jobs created Peter Dorling emphasised the fact that the branch, which opened in October 1993 with a six-man design team, today employs 315 people in Cologne and works closely with Ford and their suppliers and system providers in North Rhine-Westphalia. "Our efforts to build a seamless working relationship with Ford have been successful in every respect", said Stephan Vogt and referred to their joint development work on the Ford Mondeo and on the C-Max, the successor to the Focus. The highpoint, he continued, was being awarded "Tier 1 Supplier" status, which now entitles Bertrandt to handle global development projects with Ford. Development centre built in Feldkassel He went on to say that the company had affirmed its ties to Cologne by building a development centre on the Feldkassel industrial estate in 1998 and by expanding it three years later. He said the company's geographical proximity had enabled it to optimise its collaboration with its main customer, Ford, and the latter's systems providers and suppliers in the region. Bertrandt intended to remain a reliable development partner through systematic customer focus and by providing customers with the best possible support during management of their projects and also to impress upon both future and existing customers Bertrandt's ability to deliver. Combined expertise of Bertrandt Cologne and Aachen University of Applied Sciences on show at the Frankfurt International Motor Show 2003 The Ergoseat was exhibited by Bertrandt at the 2003 International Motor Show in Frankfurt where it received great acclaim. It sets new standards in comfort and passive safety with its variable and adaptive backrest. This innovative concept in seating can be installed in a variety of vehicle types and was developed and implemented at Bertrandt under the lead-management of its Cologne branch and in cooperation with the product development laboratory of the Jülich section of Aachen University of Applied Sciences.