Typisch bremisch Typically “Bremish”

WORLD CHAMPIONS FROM THE WESER
Hidden Champions: the State of Bremen is home to an
impressive number of SME specialists. The SME sector
is not just the backbone of the economy; in many cases
it also leads the international field – as small giants in
special markets.
Sleep is precious. Peter Lürßen sometimes has to manage
without. Like a doctor on call, he’s always on the alert. It’s
said that the shipyard boss from Bremen even has certain
customers who are allowed to wake him from his sleep or
interrupt his holiday. They are among the richest people of
the world, for whom he makes the most exclusive luxury
yachts in the world. Bremen’s Lürssen shipyard is the
world’s leading manufacturer of luxury yachts. Personal
attention from the proprietor is one of the strengths of the
family company which is meanwhile being run in the fifth
generation. “Our customers appreciate the fact that they
don’t have to deal with employed managers”, says Peter
Lürßen. It is this direct personal contact to the customers,
allied with absolute discretion and the absolute top quality
of the yachts, that makes Lürssen so successful.
The same can be said not just for Bremen’s shipbuilders
but for a whole species of companies. Market proximity
and the resulting close, long-standing customer relations
are essential factors in the success of SME world market
leaders. Top performance and innovative powers are also
needed. Professor Hermann Simon has coined the term
“Hidden Champions” for these companies which, as a rule,
are scarcely known and live in the shadow of major cor -
porations. His analyses show that Germany itself is world
champion when it comes to these SME world market
leaders. In terms of world champion qualities, the hidden
champions put all other sectors in the shade, such as
sport, science, art or major corporations. Of the 2,734 SME
world market leaders identified on by Simon on a global
scale, 1,307 or nearly half come from Germany.
According to Dieter Hundt, former President of the
Confederation of German Employers’ Associations, these
companies are “the powerhouse of German industry” and
generate lasting export success. “The world is their market”,
says Simon, with globalisation as an important pillar
in their strategy. But their settings are confined, highly
specialised markets. The Lürssen shipyard is just one
prominent example. The SME cosmos in Bremen has a
whole lot more pearls.
Without claiming to be complete, a whole range of top
players from Bremen can be named. These include for example
Adler Solar, Europe’s largest solar cell testing firm
that has already tested millions of solar cells; then there’s
Aqua Signal AG, today part of the Norwegian Glamox
Group. It makes boat and ship lamps to withstand wind
and waves, salt and fog – and has been doing so for 140
years, with worldwide success. Aqua Signal has about a
quarter of a million products in the lighting segment: for
container ships and supertankers, frigates and submarines,
cruise ships and fish trawlers, as well as oil rigs, wind farms
or mines.
BEGO Bremer Goldschlägerei Wilh. Herbst is a family company
in the fifth generation that plays a leading role on
the global dental market. The foundations were laid in
1890 by dentist Wilhelm Herbst, a pioneer in this discipline
with his idea of adhesive dental gold. Today the specialist
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