The Würth Group Global Market Leader Champion 2018

Who is a global market leader and who is not? The HBM Executive School of Management of the University of St. Gallen has examined this question in greater detail by developing an index that shows which German companies have taken a leading position in their individual markets. The Würth Group is one of these companies, a Global Market Leader Champion in the trade of assembly and fastening materials.

Global market leaders are companies that are particularly successful in their market segment and are able to show outstanding performance in their field. After all, the description global market leader is usually reserved for globally operating companies that offer outstanding product and service quality. Against this backdrop, HBM Executive School of Management of University of St. Gallen, Akademie Deutscher Weltmarktführer (ADWM) and media partner WirtschaftsWoche have developed the aforementioned Global Market Leader Index whose preparation is supported by many companies including the Würth Group.

Global market leader in the trade of connecting materials

The Würth Group itself is listed as a Global Market Leader Champion 2018 in the category “Trade” in the segment “trade of assembly and fastening materials”. The Würth Group currently consists of more than 400 companies in over 80 countries with more than 74,000 employees on its payroll. Approximately 32,000 of those employees are salaried sales representatives. According to the preliminary annual financial statement, the Würth Group generated EUR 12.7 billion in sales in fiscal year 2017.

Any company that wants to make it onto the St. Gallen University’s prestigious Global Market Leader Index must be able to meet the following strict criteria:

• (Owner)-managed and based to at least 50 % in the German-speaking part of Europe

• Global market: Operations on at least 3 of 6 continents through company-owned production and/or distribution companies or export activities

• Annual sales in millions of euros: EUR 50m

• Market leader: No. 1 or 2 in the relevant global market segment

• Export/international share of sales: 50 % or more

The new Global Market Leader Index is based on an objective and transparent selection process to determine the actual global market leader. The selection criteria and the determined values are always disclosed and the entire index is publicly accessible.