In an interview with Dr. Hagen Duenbostel, CEO of KWS, Sabine Michalek found out how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the global seed producer and its development at the Einbeck site. "KWS has come through the coronavirus pandemic very well so far, which we owe to the wonderful commitment of our employees. In addition to the many different measures, from extensive hygiene concepts to a strong expansion of digital offerings, it is above all the discipline and creativity of all employees that have minimised the impact on KWS so far," explained Hagen Duenbostel. The company is also cautiously optimistic for the coming years. The mayor was very relieved about this development, as KWS is the largest employer in Einbeck and an important trade tax payer for the city. "If KWS wants to expand its research and development activities in Einbeck in the future and the number of jobs will continue to increase, that gives me hope for the future," said Sabine Michalek during the interview. Nevertheless, the town of Einbeck will have to be very cautious in its budget planning for the coming years. The mayor was impressed during a joint tour of KWS' newest building, the Biotechnology Centre 2 (BIT 2 for short). Here, a laboratory building with 2,350 square metres of laboratory space spread over three floors has been built to the highest laboratory technology and hygiene standards, which also meets the latest requirements in terms of workplace design, energy efficiency and logistics. "KWS is investing in the Einbeck site and creating sustainable, high-quality jobs for our region," she said happily. During her visit, Sabine Michalek expressly thanked the company for a special commitment: KWS provides extensive support to Einbeck's primary schools in the creation of digital teaching and learning programmes. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the primary schools were and are currently under great pressure to develop digital teaching and learning materials, write media concepts and, together with the town of Einbeck as the school authority, implement the DigitalPakt Schule as quickly as possible. KWS has therefore initiated and financed a cooperation with the non-profit organisation MyGatekeeper. MyGatekeeper is providing the three Einbeck primary schools with very specific assistance in a pilot project together with two other schools sponsored by the district of Northeim.
About KWS*
KWS is one of the world's leading plant breeding companies. More than 5,500 employees in 70 countries generated net sales of EUR1.1 billion in fiscal 2018/2019 and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of EUR150 million. KWS has been managed independently and autonomously as a family-run company for more than 160 years. It specialises in plant breeding and the production and sale of corn, sugarbeet, cereal, rapeseed, sunflower and vegetable seed. KWS uses state-of-the-art plant breeding methods to increase farmers' yields and further improve the resistance of plants to diseases, pests and abiotic stress. To realise this goal, the company invested around EUR 200 million in research and development in the past fiscal year. * All figures exclude the shares of the equity-accounted companies AGRELIANT GENETICS LLC., AGRELIANT GENETICS INC. and KENFENG - KWS SEEDS CO., LTD.