TÜV NORD GROUP: Safety and security for business and society

The TÜV NORD GROUP is also exploiting all the latitude available to it to create solutions for our new, post-pandemic world with creativity and a spirit of innovation.

As far as is operationally possible, many TÜV NORD employees worldwide have been working from home for the last two weeks. Seminars are being conducted using the Group’s own e-learning platform, and the type testing of vehicles is for the first time being carried out using live digital technologies. Audits and inspections for industry and administration are in many places already being carried out remotely via digital means. “Many certifications and laboratory tests are being carried out securely over distances of many thousands of kilometres using digital technology. This is saving time, resources and many tonnes of CO₂. In recent weeks, we have remotely audited more than 300 companies around the world. Demand for these and other in-house innovations, for which we have been awarded the German Excellence Prize on a number of occasions, is steadily increasing,” said Stenkamp. 

The Group is trying to cushion the impact of the working time lost due to Coronavirus and to compensate for it through short-time working, asking staff to take the remaining leave owed to them, and targeted investments in innovation and digitalisation. 

The anniversary year, 2019, was another successful one for the TÜV NORD GROUP. 
The most important financial ratios for 2019 (compared to 2018):

• Group sales increased to € 1,282.4 million (+ 4.3 per cent) 
• Operating profit (EBIT): € 75.2 million (6.2 percent down on the previous year due to increased investments in digital testing technology and a new construction project in Essen). 
• Share of international business in the turnover: € 334.2 million (2018: 326.1 Euro) 
• Employees (FTE): 11,276 (an increase of 496) 

In 2019, TÜV NORD demonstrated innovative and sustainable expertise in tasks including the inspection of large offshore wind turbines using new laser-based measuring equipment (Light Detection and Ranging, (LiDAR)). Moreover, TÜV NORD Mobilität took charge of the world's first type test for an e-hybrid vehicle with fuel cell and lithium-ion batteries. The Group currently anticipates that a substantial backlog of statutory tests will need to be carried out after the Coronavirus pandemic. Its subsidiary TÜViT is currently supporting authorities and companies in their efforts to protect their staff from hacker attacks when working at home. The TÜV STATIONS are still open. 

"As TÜV NORD, we are needed now, as we will be in the future, and are making our contribution to economic and social stability,” Dirk Stenkamp said in a video message to all employees. In response to increased demand from ministries, authorities and companies, TÜV NORD teams have been carrying out tests at airports and production sites in recent days to test the quality of much-needed protective equipment such as masks and gloves in order to ensure their distribution to clinical facilities.