Mapping Best Multilingual Business Practices in the EU

4.5.CASESTUDY#5—SME(Germany)BASIC DATAName of the companyCountryAMNI Maschinenbau GmbHGermanyProfileCompany history:1979: Foundation of Bergers Maschinenbau GmbH, Menden, West-Germany as anengineering office for special machinery.1997: Bergers takes over subareas of the company Amni and starts their ownconstruction of special machines and installations (A. Mengeringhausen GmbH &Co.KG, Iserlohn)July 2007: Entity changes to AMNI Maschinenbau GmbH. The company hasconstantly focused on the construction of special machinery, first for the flock industry,then for the abrasive industry.Today, AMNI is still active in these fields; however, the main focus is on the recyclingindustry. Both managers had gained experience in this sector before they joined AMNIand contributed to a significant improvement of AMNI‘s market position in the recyclingindustry. At the end of 2007, AMNI expanded the company premises and moved toMenden. Offices and production are now based on an area of 1.700 square metres.Date of creation 1979Type of businessTurnoverMachinery / plant construction and distribution (recycling technology, grinding materialindustry, foil cutting technology, electronic waste, refuse derived fuels, tyre recycling).# € 10 millionStaff 67 people in 2010HeadquartersSubsidiariesLanguages used in the companyGermany (the company’s head office is located in Menden, with a further productionsite in Iserlohn).NoMainly German, English, and FrenchDESCRIPTIONMULTILINGUAL BUSINESSPRACTICES1.1. Recruiting multilingual staff1.3. Hiring local staff and local partnerships1.4. Multilingual business meetings and corporate languages2.1. Use of language resources and multilingual terminologies2.2. Use of free online resources and tools for translation assistance andunderstanding2.4. Corporate / in-house language services department2.5. Outsourced translation and interpretation services3.1. Multilingual Internet website3.5. Integration of multilingual online devices and toolsPROCESSES1.1. Recruiting multilingual staff1.3. Hiring local staff and localpartnerships1.4. Multilingual business meetingsand corporate languages2.1. Use of language resources andmultilingual terminologiesRecruiting of multilingual staff (technical and manager profiles) speaking at least thelanguage of the client (German, English, French or Russian). The commercial teamincludes 2 people with Russian, 4 people with French and 16 people with English.German technicians are able to speak English or French.Since 2007 there has been a partnership with a French company for organising andpromoting AMNI’s activities and export sales, including translation and interpretationassistance. AMNI set up partnerships for organising and promoting its activities andexport sales (including translation and interpretation assistance) in Europe and in theUSA.Business sales are managed in several business languages: English, German, French,and Russian.Use of dictionaries for validation of multilingual content22