Walter Storch committed to Barchfeld for 20 years

Congratulations from Büchel management for many years of service

Company anniversary Angelika Arnold

Congratulations on 10 years of service with the company

10 years – a reason to celebrate! Congratulations, dear Angelika! Thank you for supporting us with your expertise in the import department for 10 years already.

Cooperation with Fulda high school

Alumni Erhard Büchel looks forward to numerous meetings with students

What started with a casual exchange of information has now culminated in the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gymnasium and our company on joint educational activities.

The Büchel company will be integrated into various teaching projects, for example in lessons in the subject of politics and economics under the title “Economy and the world of work” or in history lessons with the exploration of the company history of the Büchel company, whose roots lie in Zella-Mehlis in Thuringia. A lecture is also planned as part of the so-called “TiS – Talk-im-Stein” on the subject of “Development of the European bicycle market”.

The provision of internships and a visit by students to the company’s German production sites in Barchfeld and Zella-Mehlis have also already been integrated into the extensive program.

However, the cooperation is by no means limited to the subject lessons. The mountain bike club at the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Schule and the bicycle workshop that has been set up are further points of contact for the cooperation. There is no doubt that the topic of “sustainability” will also be a topic of conversation in the classroom, because here the Büchel company is taking a variety of new paths to meet the political and social requirements of sustainability and climate protection.

The Freiherr-vom-Stein-Schule is thus expanding its comprehensive network of cooperative ventures and creating a solid foundation for the interlinking of school and the world of life and work. Erhard Büchel was himself a student at the Freiherr-vom-Stein-Schule, from which he graduated in 1971. As an alumnus of the high school, such an exchange is therefore also a personal concern for him.

Cycling Industries have launched a sustainable packaging commitment

We are pleased to be part of the Cycling Industries Sustainable Packaging Commitment and proud that Büchel is amongst the first companies to sign this commitment.

Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry (CONEBI) and Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) have launched an industry-wide commitment to reduce plastic packaging and eliminate unnecessary packaging from the supply chain. The pledge has been signed by more than 60 founding companies and others are invited to follow suit.

Manuel Marsilio, General Manager of CONEBI said: Our Industry Sustainability Programme puts the concept of cooperation within the industry at the centre of a wide strategy that is both in line and reinforces the European Green Deal. What we see today is that a growing number of companies are ready to take their CSR actions to ambitious heights, proactively engage in the ongoing Green transition and Circular Economy, shaping them with a forward-looking mindset.

Kevin Mayne, CEO of CIE said: Cycling is at the core of the mobility transition, making sure Europe is cleaner, greener and more liveable. The way our industry operates has to meet the same high ambitions, so we need to be in the forefront of a sustainability industrial sector. CIE and CONEBI have set an ambitious agenda to tackle important industry-wide challenges and to initiate pioneering initiatives and actions across the supply chain, this packaging initiative is the first of many ways we will act reduce our environmental impact.

Packaging volumes continue to rise globally. In 2019 the volume of packaging waste, in the EU, reached a record high of 79.3 million tonnes, 60% of which was paper, cardboard and plastic. In the US, plastic packaging alone created over 14.5 million tons of waste. The UN Sustainable Development Goals estimate, by 2050, the resource of three planets will be required to sustain the lifestyles of one. These increasing waste volumes are inflated by excessive and unnecessary packaging designs which, alongside single use models, non-recyclable materials and plastic entering our natural environments, is creating numerous challenges for our planet, climate, and biodiversity.

While customer and retail facing packaging provides companies the creative opportunity to design packaging solutions, which reflect their own values and sustainability ambitions, this only accounts for a proportion of our industry wide packaging waste. Our complex, global and often shared supply chains also create significant amounts of packaging which can be often overlooked.

Cycling Industries are uniting behind a shared vision of creating a circular economy for packaging, contributing to the European Commission’s goal for a new circular economy. This vision covers all packaging material. For plastic specifically, it is inspired by and closely aligned with the vision of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s ‘New Plastics Economy Initiative’, also adopted in the ‘Global Commitment’ led by the Foundation in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme. This vision is also endorsed by US based People For Bikes.

Cycling Industry Sustainable Packaging Commitment:

1. 1. Sharing and endorsing the common vision for more circular and sustainable packaging solutions with your supply chain partners
2. 2. Working with supply chain partners to reduce problematic plastic packaging’s and eliminate unnecessary packaging within your supply chain by 2025
3. 3. Working with supply chain partners to ensure that all supply chain packaging is reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025
4. 4. Working with supply chain partners to increase recycled content within packaging materials by 2025
5. 5. Creating customer / retail facing packaging commitments, which align with or exceed the common vision by 2025.
6. 6. Sharing progress and update with the wider cycling industry through the CONEBI / CIE Sustainability working group forum

More info about CONEBI

More Info about CIE

TOP 100 Innovation Award

Büchel scores as a particularly innovative medium-sized company

Excellent innovation work: We impressed as a ideas factory in the 29th round of the “TOP 100” competition and were awarded the TOP 100 2022 seal. This seal is awarded to particularly innovative medium-sized companies that have proven themselves in the areas of “Innovation-promoting top management,” “Innovation climate,” “Innovative processes” and “Organization, external orientation/open innovation and innovation success. Erhard Büchel will be honored in June by science journalist Ranga Yogeshwar as mentor of the competition in Frankfurt.

TOP 100 is the only innovation competition in Germany that honors a company’s innovation management and innovation success. This means that all stages of the innovation process are scrutinized rather than individual products. The background to this success is a scientific selection process that participants have to go through. The analysis focuses on the question of whether a company’s innovations are just a product of chance or are systematically planned and thus repeatable in the future. Special weighting is given to the question of how innovations and product improvements establish themselves on the market.

“We are pleased to be among the Top 100, as this seal confirms the core of our corporate philosophy of convincing with innovations and placing them sustainably on the market.” Erhard Büchel knows that these innovations alone are not enough: “The Büchel company also focuses on climate protection and sustainability in its innovations. Step by step, details from the European “Green deal” are being tackled and implemented in our group of companies. Only in this way can innovations be expanded sustainably in the long term and prove themselves on the market.”

Energy efficiency certificate for HMM

Büchel continues to focus on sustainability and energy efficiency

We continue to focus on climate protection and sustainability. Step by step, details from the European “Green deal” are being tackled and implemented. For example, our subsidiary HMM Kunststofftechnik, based in Barchfeld, Germany, was recently certified according to ISO 50001. With this certification, energy targets can be planned and energy efficiency optimized, which also goes hand in hand with a reduction in resources. The successful implementation of the certification “Quality management according to DIN EN ISO TS 16949” was not exactly an easy undertaking – in times of the pandemic the auditors do not necessarily check on site, but fortunately for HMM this worked out – the certificate was handed over in December 2021.

The motives for this certification are explained by HMM Managing Director Ullrich Blanc: “We strive to use energy sensibly now and in the future. The core objective of ISO 50001 is continuous development and improvement of energy-related performance.” Other factors in favor of this certification are risk minimization and opportunity maximization through ongoing opportunity and risk assessment and, of course, the HMM company gains reputation through the certified energy management system – the image among customers, business partners and employees grows. HMM Managing Director Ullrich Blanc clarifies: “As a modern company, it is our ambition to constantly optimize our energy-related performance in the interest of the environment.”

Ullrich Blanc names another aspect: “HMM is a supplier to the automotive industry, among others, and from multiple discussions with our customers I have learned that VW, for example, will no longer award any contracts to suppliers who are not certified according to ISO 50001 from 2024. Therefore, we have acted with foresight and save ourselves any stress if we were to react only when such requirements became known.” His conclusion: “Losing customers and thus orders due to such a lack of certification would simply be annoying.” And Blanc further clarifies: “In the next step and before the end of this year, we will have BÜCHEL Industrie certified.”

It goes without saying that this approach is entirely in the interests of the management of Büchel GmbH & Co. Fahrzeugteilefabrik KG, headquartered in Fulda, goes without saying. Company owner Erhard Büchel emphasizes: “In our subsidiary HMM – with exponential growth – components for the bicycle industry are increasingly produced, therefore we focus on sustainability and this certification is an important, further building block.” Certification for the other sites in Oederan and Zella-Mehlis has already been initiated. Büchel emphasizes that the acquisition of new plastic injection molding machines, which was part of the overall investment volume, was also implemented with a view to further energy-saving potential.

The latest developments in bicycle saddles are also produced in Barchfeld, and the saddle is 100 percent recyclable. BÜCHEL Industrie in Barchfeld, Thuringia, also produces environmentally friendly mudguards, these are sustainable because they are made of steel or aluminum sheet, are fully recyclable, replace the plastic mudguard and thus clearly reflect the green footprint. And likewise, this also includes the drinking bottles newly added to the production range. In addition, the Büchel Group is converting its packaging to almost 100 percent recyclable – entirely in the spirit of climate protection and sustainability.

Headlight

BLC 820 test winner

Big comparison test on radfahren.de

“This lamp brings light into the darkness: The Büchel BLC 820 is a powerful battery headlight for a manageable price – and the test winner in the test field.” That is the verdict of Radfahren.de after their extensive test of 22 battery-powered headlights. We’re very happy!

Here’s the link to the review (in German only): https://www.radfahren.de/test-teile/buechel-blc-820-test/

Economic history around the bike

A company portrait on osthessen-news.de

“The economic landscape of eastern Hesse is full of surprises: In inconspicuous residential areas reside global players that are successful on the market worldwide. This is also the case with Büchel, a producer of bicycle parts since the 1920s and now active worldwide with more than 1,000 employees.” This is the introduction to the recently published company portrait on osthessen-news.de.

Here is the link to the article (in German only): https://osthessen-news.de/n11655286/wirtschaftsgeschichte-rund-ums-rad-buechel-produziert-fahrradteile-weltweit.html.

Many thanks to Osthessen-News and Marius Auth!