Bosch-Group: technological pioneering to 'Global player'

"Also our customers and users of Bosch products have written together with us the history of successes that lasts for 125 years", welcomes Franz Fehrenbach, the President of the high management of the Bosch Group. "Many of our technologies pioneers have been created through close collaboration with our customers", adds Hermann Scholl, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, who adds: "the innovative spirit characterises our company also currently, because the search for new fields of business"", markets and technologies continues."

The year 2011 is under the sign of the double anniversary of the Bosch Group. Through numerous activities to be held around the world, including some 200 events for employees, the company will commemorate this year the two anniversaries. As a starting point is now available on the Internet an interactive page online on the anniversary. Under the address www.125.bosch.com, everything revolves around a globe that invites you to browse and participate. It's the 'Globe Bosch'. In this multimedia world of Bosch, visitors can make a trip in time and discover the history of the company as new technologies of the present. If you rotate the globe into the future can leave their own mark in the form of ideas and desires on a world map.

"In this anniversary year we want to close the circle of our origins and our future and, to this end, we have prepared many activities for our clients, partners and collaborators," said Uta Micaela Dürig, Director of the Department of communication of the Bosch Group and responsible for the coordination of the activities that will take place during this year's anniversary in everything the world.

With the annual of about 3,800 patent registration and higher than the 3,500 million euros in research and development investments, the Bosch Group maintains its innovative line and creates the conditions necessary for more sustainable growth. Faithful to its strategic principles, Bosch offers the products of its three business areas automotive technology, Industrial technical as well as consumer goods, security and communication 'Innovation for your life'.

For this reason, the company is one of the leading manufacturers of systems of injection for diesel engines and gasoline, as well as systems of vehicle safety such as, for example, the system ABS, ABS, or the electronic stability programESP. In addition, Bosch is one of the largest providers of thermotechnics, appliances, power tools and security systems. With the Industrial technique business area, Bosch is a specialist in drive and control technologies. This area includes the technique of packaging and Solar Energy divisions.

Large investments in products that respect the environment and protecting natural resources

Bosch invests long-term in future markets such as renewable energy and electric mobility. In this regard, almost 50% of the annual budget on research and development is exclusively used to develop products that help save energy and natural resources. At the same time, the company has been developing for decades, technical innovations that can save much energy in everyday life through its application around the world, e.g. with control systems for cars, household appliances or in the field of heating and air conditioning.

The keys to the success of Bosch have always been its innovative capacity and the high quality of its products. With this, the founder of the company, Robert Bosch, succeeded because at the end of the 19th century foothold in international markets. The first workshop in Stuttgart became the core of the rapid international development of the company. The long list of innovations of the Bosch home starts with the construction of the magneto ignition of low voltage motor of automobile in 1897. And the system that followed this product: the magneto for ignition of high voltage presented by Bosch in 1902, was the final commercial success of the company on the path towards the successful leading supplier of automobile components.

Bosch was also one of the drivers who turned the car in a means of mass transportation since its inception and throughout the 20th century. The product range was expanded step by step. The call was introduced in the market in 1913 'Light Bosch' car, a system of lighting with a supply of energy through the generator and battery. Then came other innovations such as the electric starter motor, the Horn, windscreen wipers, the servo and the flashing lights. With these products, Bosch improved the capacity of the cars of those times as vehicles for everyday use and contributed decisively to a greater comfort and greater road safety. With the creation of the Bosch service workshops, from 1921, and the expansion of the sales network and business delegations abroad, Bosch established a comprehensive repair service for your clients and created, at the same time, the basis of global commercial business equipment for cars. With the pump of injection for diesel in commercial vehicles, Bosch was the first company which manufactured in series a technology which showed the way forward. This system was used in 1936, for the first time in a tourism. With the injection system for petrol engines, Bosch introduced for the first time in 1951 in the vehicle Gutbrod Superior, equipped with a two stroke engine, were the foundations for the development of the modern gasoline for cars with higher power engineslower consumption and reduced emissions. Three years later debuted the injection system for petrol for four-stroke engines, in the legendary Mercedes Benz 300 SL characterized by its 'wings of Butterfly' doors.

Also in the area of electric equipment for vehicles, the company continued to expand continuously their product catalog. Semiconductors became, from the second half of the 20th century, the core components of the new electronic systems, from the management system of the engine until the driver assistance systems. Electronic components of own manufacture in electronic regulators were used in 1958, for the first time. By 1967, Bosch produced in large series Jetronic system, the first electronic gasoline injection. Due to the growing importance of electronic systems for the car, the company opened in 1970, a new plant in Reutlingen (Germany), near Stuttgart, engaged exclusively in the manufacture of semiconductors. Innovations from Bosch as the system of regulation of exhaust gases by Lambda probe for catalysts (1976), the anti-lock system, ABS, (1978) and the electronic program of stability, ESP, (1995), would not have been possible without the technology of semiconductor of Bosch. The ABS and ESP, since its introduction in the market, have contributed very significantly to improving road safety and reduce fatal accidents. The company is betting on future technologies and, in 2010, opened a new factory of semiconductor in Reutlingen which, with its 600 million euros, has been the largest single investment in the 125 years of history of the company.

There are new Bosch systems that enable to achieve a reduction in consumption and emissions in the automobile with combustion engine. In addition, the company drives the electrification of the vehicles drive. The parallel hybrid technology complete developed by the company, which also allows driving only with electricity, already used in German series of trademarks Volskwagen and Porsche vehicles. In addition to hybrid technology, are being developed purely electrical drives for vehicles. The technique of the car is, so far, the business area with more sales of the Bosch Group. Only in this area, the company has invested in 2009 close to 3 billion euros in research and development.

Following its long tradition, Bosch is also concerned that friends of classic and antique vehicles have their cars about to. Bosch Automotive Tradition offers a wide range of more than 50,000 of spare parts for classic and antique vehicles. In this way, the company also contributes to the ongoing maintenance of historical mobility.

From Stuttgart to everyone. Thus this history of successes of Robert Bosch could describe in one sentence. The founder quickly saw the economic opportunities of the international marketing of their products and founded already in 1898, a first branch office in Great Britain and, in 1899, in France and Belgium which was based in Paris. In the following years were opened, among others, the delegations in the U.S. (1906), South Africa (1906), Australia and New Zealand (1907), Spain (1908), China (1909), Brazil (1910) and Japan (1911). In the course of the next few decades, Bosch reacted with many innovations to the extraordinary expansion of the automotive sector and began the creation of a global organization of development, manufacturing and marketing. Local manufacturing in the key markets of Europe, America and Asia ensures competitiveness until today and is the basis of the success of the company in the long term.

In other fields of business, Bosch reached a position prominent thanks to its products and innovative services and the high quality of the same. Before the crisis in Europe of the automobile in 1926, the company started to expand its activities to other fields that were beyond the scope of the car. The goal was the creation of a broad-based business to depend less than short-term fluctuations of the car. This mode of action from the outset showed their advantages and the Bosch Group continues to apply it and adapting it to current requirements. Franz Fehrenbach, President of the high management of the Bosch Group, pursues this strategy of diversification and aspires to achieve procurement that are adapted to the core competencies of the company. In recent years, Bosch has expanded its business to renewable energy systems. This strategy has proved their worth in times of crisis, as in the course of the recent economic and financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. The basis for the enlargement of the different fields of business created them Bosch with the entry into the market of power tools following the success achieved in 1928 with the 'Forfex', the first machine to cut the hair that incorporated an electric motor in the handgrip. These products were followed others such as the Bosch rotary hammer, in 1932, and the tools to fans to the DIY in the 1950s. Today, Bosch is one of the leading suppliers in the market of power tools, both amateurs and professionals in industry and construction. These tools are also available, in large part, with rechargeable batteries with Li-ion technology.

Bosch was also able to successfully introduce new products on the market of home appliances, for example, in 1933, he introduced the first Bosch fridge and, in the 1950s, a food processor, a washing machine and an automatic dishwasher. The current dishwasher of zeolites, which incorporates a new procedure for energy recovery, obtained in 2010 Award for innovation for the climate and the environment which delivered the German Environment Ministry and the German Industrial Federation (BDI). The appliance is an example of the high standard of development attained by the products of the current BSH Bosch und Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH. Through acquisitions of companies and joint interests, as in the example of the BSH has been expanded continuously the catalogue of products, always thinking to integrate the fields of business more innovative in the Bosch organization.

One of these many examples was the purchase of the area of boilers to the German industrialist Hugo Junkers gas in 1932. At that time, Bosch joined the business in the preparation of hot water for home and industry and has continued to develop this area consistently. Currently, the area of Thermotechnics is one of the most successful divisions of the Bosch Group and offers from boiler to gas and diesel, gas heaters and vacuum flasks of hot water, pumps heat and solar systems, including to central heating for housing blocks; in other words, a very complete package of products. In addition, Bosch has achieved a great success as a global supplier in the area of consumer goods, security and communication.

In 1902, Robert Bosch began to manufacture their own devices for the production of components for the magneto, as she did not convince him the quality of the components offered in the market. On the basis of that initiative, 1932 created the area of product construction of special machines, which emerged in 1974 the Division Industrial equipment that produced that year, for the first time, manufacturing for external customers facilities. In this area was created, among others, the first robot of pivoting arm of the world, which was introduced in 1984 in the market. The automation technique stood in 2001 in the subsidiary Bosch Rexroth AG and today form part of the Drive and Control Technology Division, which is integrated into the Industrial technique business area. Bosch Rexroth currently offers a wide range of benefits ranging from modern technology for scenarios such as the Oslo Opera House or the sliding roof of the Caja Mágica in Madrid, major mechanisms of transmission for wind power plants. The subsidiary offers worldwide innovative actuation and control systems.

Ersol in 2008 allowed Bosch, also entering the market of solar energy. Along with other acquisitions, the company has once again expanded its range of services in this important industry. For example, Bosch develops, manufactures, and currently markets a wide range of photovoltaic products from the cell of silicon to complete installations. But Bosch also manufactures modern techniques of packaging for major manufacturers of food and pharmaceutical products. With these products achieved a great success in the Asian market.

International activities in fields of technology of the future guarantee long-term competitiveness of the company. The Megatrends such as climate change, renewable energy, demographic changes, environmentally-friendly mobility with environmental protection or the increase in communications over the Internet earn more and more importance. Bosch is facing the business and environmental challenges resulting from this with their innovative capacity and its international presence in the markets. The company committed to the development of green technologies and make them as opportunities for sustainable growth, for example, in the area of the electrification of the automobile, as well as in the area of pumps heat to home automation or renewable energies such as solar or wind energy. Credibility, profitability and reliability are central elements of the future-oriented business policy. In that regard, Bosch assumes their economic and social responsibilities as drawn up by the founder of the company in his legacy. In 2009, Franz Fehrenbach was rewarded for his consistent and environmentally friendly management environment. The ADAC German automobile club handed the 'Yellow Angel' as 'personality of the year 2009' by the innovative capacity of the Bosch Group aimed at the protection of the environment. In addition, by working Federal for the Respetuosa environment management group, that same year he received the environment B.A.U.M. Award and, on behalf of the Bosch Group, received the award for the understanding and the tolerance of the Jewish Museum in Berlin.