His company has already been awarded the Grand Prix of Medium-Sized Enterprises several times - now the owner and managing director himself, together with his wife Ruth Munk, has been honoured with the special prize for lifetime achievement: Ferdinand Munk has been managing the Munk Group, based in Günzburg and Leipheim, for 42 years and has been shaping the world of occupational safety with innovative access and rescue technology for just as long and just as successfully. Under him and his wife Ruth, the family business has matured from a family-run craft business to a technology and innovation leader for access equipment - and is now more successful than ever: the Munk Group employs 450 people in its home district, has over 20 sales partners worldwide and has always manufactured exclusively ‘made in Germany’. Munk has 2,500 products in its standard range and also stands for highly customised access and rescue technology solutions for every industry and every challenge - whether for industry and trade or for aid and blue light organisations. Particularly impressive: annual turnover has increased 680-fold under Ferdinand Munk, who has also been socially and politically active for many years. The Munk Group is now starting its 125th anniversary year.
„It is a very special honour and appreciation that this highest lifetime achievement award is now being bestowed on me personally,’ says Ferdinand Munk, owner and Managing Director of the Munk Group, looking back over the past 42 years: ’When my wife Ruth and I started at the Günzburg site in 1982 as the fourth generation of the family, we started out with a total area of 7,000 m2. Now we have an area of over 200,000 m2, almost 30 times as much. Our annual turnover has also increased 680-fold from DM 250,000; we expect to close the 2024 financial year with around 85 million euros. I can only thank everyone from the bottom of my heart who has travelled this path with our family and contributed so much to our success - first and foremost, of course, our ever-growing team in Günzburg and Leipheim,“ says Munk.
A powerful team
Ferdinand Munk particularly emphasises his wife Ruth, with whom he founded the company Günzburger Leiternbau in Günzburg in 1982 and integrated his parents' company Leopold Munk KG in 1991 following the sudden death of his father. In the years that followed, this grew into today's Munk Group: „The lifetime achievement award is also due to my wife Ruth, because she also gave everything for our family business for over 42 years, many of those years also as Managing Director. The fact that the Munk Group is today the benchmark for innovative access and rescue technology is equally to her credit,“ says Munk.
Responsibility and safety made in Germany
The Oskar Patzelt Foundation has been honouring companies with the Grand Prize for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises for 30 years: Around 100 jurors evaluate the nominees according to their overall development, the creation and safeguarding of jobs and apprenticeships, innovation and modernisation, service and customer proximity, as well as their commitment to the region. First honoured in 2009, the Munk Group has since been repeatedly awarded the Großer Preis des Mittelstandes - including in 2015 and 2017 as „Premier“.
„We have always had the criteria of the Oskar Patzelt Foundation deeply embedded in our DNA,“ says Ferdinand Munk: „It's not for nothing that we stand for safety made in Germany like no other company: the products we develop and manufacture are the exact opposite of the short-lived disposable products of our time. Thanks to Made in Germany, we keep supply chains stable and secure and also respond particularly quickly to our customers' requirements. We also secure and create long-term jobs and apprenticeships in the region, as we manufacture exclusively in our home district.“
Ferdinand Munk is also politically and socially committed to the people in the region - and has been setting a good example with its corporate culture for over 40 years. This includes the continuous development of the family and employee-friendly management concept: Munk employees benefit from childcare programmes in the MUNK Kids Club during the holidays as well as training and further education, which their family members can also take advantage of. The fact that the Munk Group is one of the most family-friendly employers in the German SME sector is also confirmed by the „Work and Family“ audit certificate: in 2022, Munk was the first company in the district of Günzburg to be awarded the quality seal by berufundfamilie Service GmbH.
„Into the future with confidence“ ...
... is the motto of this year's 30th Großer Preis des Mittelstands and also applies to the Munk Group and its entire corporate family: „We have defied all crises in recent years and have grown in all areas,“ says son-in-law Alexander Werdich, also Managing Director: „We have expanded our locations in recent years with investments totalling over 30 million euros, turnover is rising sharply every year and the number of employees has also reached a new record level of over 450. In the coming years, we will continue to invest in the double-digit million range and expand further. As you can see: We have every reason to look forward and are now embarking on our special anniversary year ‘125 years of Munk“.
