Outstanding Inventive Talent at Elementar

Only creative companies with vision and a feeling for new ideas make it into the ranks of the top one hundred most innovative SMEs. Elementar Analysensysteme (Germany) was among them in 2011, and was presented with the Top 100 award by Lothar Späth in the Baltic resort of Warnemünde.

In the 20 years since it was founded, this family-owned company has become a German and international market leader. Its staff of 70 manufacture and distribute equipment for analysing chemical elements in organic and inorganic substances, for purposes such as detecting food adulteration and measuring water quality. Thanks to its great success, the company is soon to take on a large number of new employees. What’s more, the fact that 80 per cent of its products are exported proves that Elementar’s innovations are in demand around the world.

The management team headed by Dr Hans-Peter Sieper believes that sustainability is a key competitive advantage, so durable products made from recyclable materials are used where possible, spare parts are stocked for 10 years after their original production period and regular software updates are supplied to ensure that users are working with the latest technology. The company also feels responsible for protecting the environment and it is systematically replacing methods that use large amounts of chemicals or pollutants with procedures carried out by instruments that do not waste resources.

The Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration scrutinised the innovative capabilities of 272 small and medium-sized German firms over a period of several months. The 100 best companies – Elementar among them – bear the Top 100 seal of approval for one year. "Creative ideas and fresh thinking are more than a means of increasing revenue for us; we are passionate about our business, and we want to make a difference. We are proud to have been awarded this prize and it proves that working as a team pays off," said Dr Sieper.

The 100 SMEs who were awarded the seal of approval in 2011 generated total revenue of €11.2 billion last year. In 2010 alone, 769 German and 1,865 international patents were registered. Forty-eight of the one hundred companies are top in their respective sector in Germany, and 19 are actually global market leaders. In the past three years, 88 of the 100 award-winning firms grew faster than the average for their respective sector – by an average of around 16 per cent.

Further information on Elementar, the other 99 prize-winning firms and the Top 100 project can be found at www.top100.de.