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<h1>About Kärcher</h1>
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<div class="category-description std">KÄRCHER - GLOBAL SUPPLIER OF CLEANING TECHNOLOGY</div>
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<h1 class="mobile">We are working on new solutions – full steam ahead. Today as we always have.</h1>
<h4>Facts and Figures 2017</h4>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Alfred Kärcher SE &amp; 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
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<h4>About us</h4>
<p>Kärcher is a global company and sees itself as a benchmark. We want to occupy a leading position in market share, innovation, quality and image, and we aim to be global market leaders in all areas of our business.</p>
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<h4>Working together</h4>
<p>Trust, loyalty, transparency, fairness, reliability and respect characterise Kärcher's relationships with others, both inside and outside the company. Through teamwork and by actively exchanging information, we make the most of all of the experience and expertise our company has to offer in order to achieve our goals.</p>
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<h4>Customer focus</h4>
<p>We foster open dialogue with our customers based on partnership. Our products and services offer ideal solutions which have real benefits for customers. Our customers' cleaning problems can be solved quickly and flexibly.</p>
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<div class="card"><img src="{{media url=&quot;alfred-irene-kaercher.jpg&quot;}}" alt="Alfred Kärcher – inventor and entrepreneur" />
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<div class="card-text" style="margin-top: 81.071px; opacity: 0;">Alfred &amp; Irene Kärcher &gt;</div>
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<h6 class="mobileheadline headlinebottom">Alfred Kärcher – inventor and entrepreneur</h6>
<p>Alfred KärcherAlfred Kärcher, like Robert Bosch, Gottlieb Daimler and Graf Zeppelin, was one of the inventors and entrepreneurs that Württemberg produced in such great number since the beginning of the industrial era. In 1935 he founded his own company in Bad Cannstatt, Stuttgart so that he could produce and market his own products in the field of heating technology. In 1939, the family-owned company relocated to Winnenden, where it still has its headquarters.</p>
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<div class="card-text" style="margin-top: 87px; opacity: 0;">hot water high-pressure cleaner &gt;</div>
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<h6 class="mobileheadline headlinebottom">Move into cleaning technology</h6>
<p>Alfred Kärcher made his breakthrough into the cleaning technology industry in 1950 with the development of the first European hot water high-pressure cleaner (the DS 350 steam jet). The design of the water heater proved to be so pioneering that it still forms the basis of all burners today.</p>
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<div class="card-text" style="margin-top: 86.7178px; opacity: 0;">Company in Winnenden &gt;</div>
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<h6 class="mobileheadline headlinebottom">Internationalisation</h6>
<p>In 1962, Kärcher founded its first foreign subsidiary in France, followed by Austria and Switzerland. Internationalisation continued apace.</p>
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<h4><strong>Growth through innovation</strong></h4>
<p>After a phase of diversification, Kärcher turned its attention to high-pressure cleaning in 1974. During this period, the colour of the machines was changed from blue to the now world-famous Kärcher yellow. In 1980, the company expanded its product range to cover basic cleaning requirements, initially in the areas of transport and buildings. Step by step, the range was expanded with the addition of wet and dry vacuum cleaners, sweeper vacuums and scrubber driers, vehicle washing bays, steam cleaners, cleaning agents and drinking water and wastewater treatment systems.</p>
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<h4>Kärcher becomes a global market leader</h4>
<p>Innovation has been and continues to be the most important growth factor. In 2011 alone, Kärcher launched over 100 new products. The global market leader in cleaning technology will continue to be characterised by its ingenuity, top performance and innovative problem solving.</p>
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<h2>Top performance for cleanliness and value</h2>
<p>We foster open dialogue with our customers based on partnership. Our products and services offer ideal solutions which have real benefits for customers. Our customers' cleaning problems can be solved quickly and flexibly.</p>
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<h6 class="headlinebottom">Production and procurement</h6>
<div class="block-content">Our suppliers are part of our value chain. Together with them, we work continuously to optimise production intensity and process design. We ensure competitiveness in quality and costs through our responsiveness, speed and flexibility.</div>
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<h6 class="headlinebottom">Corporate social responsibility</h6>
<div class="block-content">Kärcher stands by its responsibility to society: we respect the values and standards, human rights, and legal and social systems of all countries in the spirit of good citizenship.</div>
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<h6 class="headlinebottom">Use of resources</h6>
<div class="block-content">We design our products, services and processes to be environmentally compatible. Wherever we are active, we take environmental requirements into account and, in doing so, use all of the available resources responsibly.</div>
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