”Best Innovator Award“ for CeWe Color
CeWe Color was awarded ”Best Innovator“ by A.T. Kearney management consultants and the German journal ”WirtschaftsWoche”. The company‘s CEO, Dr. Rolf Hollander, accepted the award Thursday night at the Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin. Besides CeWe Color, the German chemical manuafcturer Henkel was awarded in the category for major corporations.
“CeWe Color is an excellent example of innovation in a business model,” says Kai Engel, A.T.Kearney partner. The company had mastered the technological transition from analogue to digital photography and had reinforced its position as the European market leader in the field of photofinishing. Since 2002, CeWe Color has doubvled its market share in industrial photofinishing in Germany from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. While the company produced only 36 million digital photos in 2002, this figure had risen to more than two billion digital photos in 2009. Sales of the CeWe Photo Book increased sales from 70,000 pieces in 2005 to more than 3.6 million books in 2009. The development of an outstanding software program, the introduction of a brand name and the intensive operation of Internet sales were decisive success factors here. Since 2002, CeWe has invested 250 million euros in new technologies – including investments in more than 50 modern digital printing machines, industrial book binding production lines and 25,000 order terminals for retail stores. Today, 120 software developers secure the development edge of the order software that CeWe Color makes available to final consumers through its retail partners. Most recently, CeWe Color and its subsidiary, diron have started up a new field of business with the launch of the printing portal www.aprinto.de. With this new business sector, CEO Rolf Hollander has his sights firmly set on the next growth spurt. “Innovation is an element of our daily work, it makes the success achieved in the past few years possible and it secures growth in future.”
