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TÜV Süd AG

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1866
Seat Munich , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management Axel Stepken (Chairman), Dr. Matthias J. Rapp, Ishan Palit
Number of employees approx. 24,000 (2017)
sales 2.4 billion euros (2017)
Branch technical testing, certification, etc. a.
Website www.tuev-sued.de

The TÜV Süd AG (proper spelling TUV SUD ) is an internationally active German service company based in Munich . In spite of the origin of the abbreviation (“ Technical Monitoring Association ”) it is (unlike its main shareholder of the same name) today not an association , but a stock corporation , albeit not a listed company .

TÜV SÜD is a technical testing organization that offers a wide range of services with testing and certification as its main focus. In 2015 an annual turnover of 2.3 billion euros was achieved with 24,000 employees.

description

Fields of work

Munich headquarters of TÜV Süd in June 2018

TÜV Süd is represented at more than 800 locations throughout Germany, Europe, America and Asia. Around 43 percent of sales are generated abroad. In addition to technical examinations , advice, reports and tests, the range of services also includes training and certification. TÜV SÜD is also active in the classic services of general inspections (“ inspection badges ”), system testing, product tests and expert reports. In parallel with the development of technology, the fields of work were gradually expanded (including electrical power, vehicles , driving licenses , power plant technology , fire protection technology , cable cars , railway technology , passenger elevators , nuclear power plants , environmental protection , management systems , product safety , property valuation and construction technology ). Currently important topics are electromobility , renewable energies and information security . Internationalization was actively pursued in the European domestic market and other markets such as Turkey and Korea .

Self-reliance

TÜV Süd is an independent company and is in direct competition with the nationally and internationally active TÜV companies TÜV Nord , TÜV Rheinland , TÜV Saarland and TÜV Thuringia . The company is a member of the Association of TÜV eV

Holdings

As a stock corporation, TÜV Süd is not listed on the stock exchange . 74.9 percent of the shares belong to the registered association TÜV Süd , which has around 13,500 members; the remaining 25.1 percent belong to the TÜV Süd Foundation . Your share rights in TÜV Süd AG were transferred to the independent TÜV Süd Gesellschafterausschuss GbR based in Munich. This should make a takeover by foreign competing companies more difficult, which has been successful to this day. The energy companies E.ON , Vattenfall and EnBW are members of the association.

Company history

Steam boiler explosion in 1881. Lithograph by the Bavarian Steam Boiler Revision Association
Shell boilers that are supervised by TÜV Süd.

1866 to 1900

In 1866 the company was founded in Mannheim as the "steam boiler revision association". In 1874, the "Bavarian Steam Boiler Revision Association" received royal recognition. The aim and task was to “protect people, the environment and property from the negative effects of technology”. Advisory recommendations for more economical operation of the plants were given early on. Qualified advice has been an important part of the testing tasks of the technical inspection organizations from the very beginning.

1900 to 1938

From 1899, the experts also worked for electricity power stations after fatal electrical accidents. Stationary diesel engines were tested in 1906, and passenger elevators a year later. Long-distance steam pipes have been subjected to regular tests since 1917, and cinema theaters since 1926. Emission protection was tested for the first time in 1929 : Dust pollution in connection with the chimney height of combustion systems. The motor vehicle tests were carried out for the first time in the 1920s and since 1929 “ flying structures ” have also been checked, ie rides at fairs and festivals such as the Oktoberfest .

1938 to 1945

By decree of the Reich government in 1938, all audit associations were given the new designation "Technical Monitoring Association". After the Second World War , all associations were dissolved by the victorious powers because of their involvement in the structures of National Socialism as part of the coordination .

1945 to 2000

The first re-establishment after the war took place in Bavaria in 1947. In the 1950s, with the beginning of the economic miracle, traffic increased very strongly. The subject of cars and traffic thus became more and more important, as did the performance and special responsibility of the people behind the wheel. The year 1954 was the birth of the Medical-Psychological Examination (MPU).

In the 1960s, nuclear energy and environmental protection became fields of activity for TÜV engineers. The education area followed later as the "TÜV Süd Academy" and the product and material tests, which led to the establishment of "TÜV Süd Product Service". "TÜV Süd Management Service" has been taking care of certification and quality assurance since the late 1980s.

The establishment of the TÜV Sachsen took place after the fall of the Wall in 1992; In 1996 , TÜV Südwest and TÜV Sachsen merged to form TÜV Süddeutschland. In 1999, TÜV Hessen was incorporated . TÜV Süd AG has been the majority shareholder since then.

Since 2000

In 2003 TÜV Hanse was founded; The majority shareholder is TÜV Auto Service. In 2004, TÜV Süd Life Service opened the North Region.

2005 saw the founding of TÜV Süd Chemie Service, in the same year TÜV Süd took over 75 percent of the shares in LSG-Hygiene Institute and LSG-ELAB from Lufthansa Service Gesellschaft ( LSG Sky Chefs ). In 2006 the PSB group of companies in Singapore was acquired, as well as the testing service providers EST Testing Solutions from Michigan and Petrochem Inspection Services from Texas in the USA .

On December 15, 2006, the planned takeover of the fourth largest classifier, Germanischer Lloyd (GL), known as "Schiffs-TÜV" failed . This purchase should add a new business area to the TÜV portfolio.

At the beginning of 2007 efforts were made to merge the two groups TÜV Süd and TÜV Nord. The common name “TÜV Europe” was up for discussion. After newspaper reports had already confirmed the merger and announced it for September 2007, the two companies announced on August 27, 2007 that they wanted to remain independent.

In August 2007, TÜVturk , a joint venture between TÜV Süd and the Turkish partners Dogus and Akfen, received the green light to set up comprehensive vehicle monitoring in Turkey. TÜV Süd is introducing the inspection of vehicles in Turkey in stages. In 2011, TÜV Süd checked more vehicles in Turkey than in Germany.

In February 2008, TÜV Süd and TÜV Rheinland confirmed that they wanted to merge. TÜV Süd and TÜV Rheinland would together be the second largest testing company in the world behind the listed Swiss Société Générale de Surveillance . At the end of August 2008, both companies withdrew their application for approval from the Federal Cartel Office, as the Federal Cartel Office had indicated that it would not approve the merger in the planned form. In December 2008, the merger plans were finally abandoned.

In mid-2010, the human business area was dissolved. The areas of Management Service, Product Service and Academy, which are subordinate to this business area, have formed the new Certification business area since 2010. TÜV Süd Life Service with the area of ​​people and technology (occupational safety, occupational medicine and industrial psychology) and MPU (medical psychological examination after loss of driving license) has been part of the mobility business area since 2012 . The company's third major business area includes services for industry.

In 2006, TÜV Süd bought the British company "Nuclear Technology" and on October 29, 2009 the Korean nuclear technology company GNEC.

In 2011, TÜV Süd took over ten international companies, including companies based in Japan , South Africa , Canada , Great Britain , Italy and Germany. In 2012, companies in Brazil (food safety), South Africa (elevator testing) and Great Britain (wind energy) were acquired.

Brand, logo, image

TÜV Süd benefits from the very high level of awareness of the TÜV brand . The corporate logo ("octagon") is a modified octagonal inspection sticker .

A three-dimensional logo was introduced in 2005. The new company motto “ More security . More value. "(In English" Choose Certainty. Add Value . ") Was made public as part of an" added value campaign ".

At the 40th International Film and Video Festival in Hollywood , TÜV Süd won the “Gold Camera Award 2007” with its corporate film “What kind of people are they?”. In the “Public Relations: Corporate Image ” category , first place was achieved by more than 1,200 applicants from 24 countries. The company's 2010 annual report received a red dot design award .

criticism

In a report by the television magazine Kontraste in 2010, it was criticized that representatives of TÜV Süd exert too much influence on the nuclear supervision of the state of Baden-Württemberg in the control of nuclear power plants. Specifically, in an interview with Oskar Grözinger from the State Atomic Energy Agency, questions were asked about the control procedures of the Philippsburg nuclear power plant . When the reporter asked, the interview was abruptly ended by two TÜV employees present during the interview.

According to the kontraste report, TÜV Süd achieved annual sales in the three-digit million range through security checks in nuclear power plants. When considering a potential shutdown of nuclear power plants because of safety concerns, there is obviously a conflict of interest. In 2008, a working group of the Federal Environment Ministry prepared an expert opinion on the monitoring of nuclear power plants and came to the conclusion that too close to the operators of TÜV Süd impaired the quality and independence of the expert opinion of nuclear power plants. After the start of the Fukushima nuclear disaster , the Merkel II cabinet decided on new measures to phase out nuclear power ; to shut down the seven oldest German nuclear power plants immediately. All four nuclear reactors of construction line 69 criticized in the 'kontraste' report , including Philippsburg 1 and Isar I , were shut down immediately by means of a nuclear moratorium and soon afterwards finally shut down.

On March 5, 2013, the ZDF magazine Frontal21 criticized the fact that in the course of the alleged fraud of the S&K group , excessive appraisals had been issued for real estate belonging to the S&K group of companies. TÜV Süd claimed that these reports were only internal and should not have been used in customer meetings with the S&K Group.

On June 6, 2013, the ARD broadcast Monitor reported on the lax inspections by TÜV Süd in textile factories in Bangladesh . There, social standards and working conditions are to be monitored by the local factory workers using the BSCI seal. TÜV Süd pointed out that the test reports mentioned in the report from 2010 are out of date.

In 2012 and 2013 it was discovered in South Korea that parts used in nuclear power plants had forged safety certificates from before 2010. The company Kocen, which was taken over by TÜV SÜD after 2010, was named as the main person responsible for the forgeries. The company, which was then commissioned as an external auditor, also belongs to the TÜV-SÜD Group.

When the dam of a sedimentation basin of an iron ore mine broke on January 25, 2019 in Brumadinho / Brazil , it became known that this dam was inspected by TÜV Süd in September 2018 and not objected to. On the morning of January 29, 2019, the police searched the TÜV Süd office in Sao Paulo and provisionally arrested two technicians. On February 15, 2019 it was reported that the TÜV Süd employees had been released after a week, and that 8 employees of the mining company Vale were arrested instead. One of them is said to have put pressure on the TÜV employees. In the further development, it was reported on March 14, 2019 that detention was ordered again for eleven employees of the Vale Group and two TÜV Süd employees, as they are suspected of having known about the instability of the dam. TÜV Süd published a press release on the Brumadinho incidents on February 19, 2019. On July 18, 2019, the BBC reported new evidence that the disaster could have been prevented and charged TÜV Süd with the fact that it was aware of it before the dam broke . The core message of the BBC report was that there were e-mails from TÜV Süd stating that the dam did not meet the safety requirements. In addition, a public prosecutor was quoted as saying that TÜV Süd was not acting cooperatively. On August 20, Der Spiegel reported that Axel Stepken, chairman of the board of TÜV Süd, announced that he would generally give up the business of safety checks on dams. On January 21, 2020, Der Spiegel reported that the Brazilian public prosecutor had filed a lawsuit against the operating company Vale and the German testing company TÜV Süd. Murder charges were brought against 16 individuals. On February 15, 2020, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that the public prosecutor's office in Germany was also investigating TÜV Süd, namely by the Munich I public prosecutor's office, which is known for major commercial proceedings and is active at the company's place of residence.

Web links

Commons : TÜV Süd  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. www.tuev-sued.de TÜV SÜD AG - Board of Directors. Accessed February 20, 2018.
  2. a b [1] , accessed on January 29, 2019
  3. ^ Profile, Facts & Figures, accessed on July 18, 2012
  4. Articles of Association, as of December 10, 2009 (PDF file; 101 kB)
  5. https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/handel-konsumgueter/boersengang-tuev-lockt-investoren-an-seite-2/2932758-2.html?ticket=ST-178386-4js7iDNq5cjr7CrhHQhS-ap5
  6. Daniela Stürmlinger, Rolf Zamponi: Ship MOT: scandal at the shareholder meeting. In: Hamburger Abendblatt, December 9, 2006. From Abendblatt.de, accessed on January 28, 2019.
  7. Billion sales - TÜV Süd and TÜV Nord negotiate merger. March 28, 2007. From WiWo.de, accessed on January 28, 2019.
  8. ↑ The merger of TÜV Süd and TÜV Nord failed. In: Die Tagesschau, August 27, 2007. From TSarchive.wordpress.com (Tagesschau.de archive), accessed on January 28, 2019.
  9. TÜVTurk opens the first test center in Turkey. lifepr.de, accessed on August 23, 2013.
  10. Green light for the Turkish TÜV. TÜV Süd is exclusively responsible for vehicle inspection in Turkey. handelsblatt.de, accessed on August 23, 2013.
  11. On the gentle tour. sueddeutsche.de, accessed on August 23, 2013.
  12. Press release from TÜV Rheinland of February 13, 2008 ( Memento of October 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  13. TÜV major merger does not kill jobs ( memento from February 11, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) FTD, February 13, 2008.
  14. TÜV SÜD acquires the Korean nuclear technology service provider GNEC. October 29, 2009. From tuev-sued.de, accessed on January 28, 2019.
  15. TÜV Süd image film, accessed on September 1, 2017
  16. Chris Humbs, Manka Heise and Iris Marx: Nuclear power - extension of service life despite safety deficits . ARD / RBB broadcast “ Kontraste ”, July 15, 2010, accessed on August 23, 2013 .
  17. from minute 4:20
  18. Working group RS I 3 (Document 13802/1): Imbalance between authorities and expert organizations in the monitoring of nuclear power plants
  19. Suspected investment fraud - Thousands of small investors fear for their money , Frontal 21, broadcast on March 5, 2013 ( Memento from April 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  20. Monitor report ( memento from June 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on wdr.de, accessed on August 23, 2013
  21. see also en: South Korean nuclear scandal
  22. ^ Report in The Hankyoreh , an independent South Korean newspaper, accessed October 10, 2014
  23. https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/brasilien-dammbruch-schlamm-101.html
  24. Thomas Fromm, Boris Herrmann, Frederik Obermaier, Uwe Ritzer: "No defects found". Dam burst in Brazil. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, January 28, 2019 (accessed January 28, 2019)
  25. https://www.welt.de/vermischtes/article187897210/Dammbruch-in-Brasilien-Zwei-Ingenieure-des-TUEV-Sued-festhaben.html
  26. Eight mine workers arrested. In: tagesschau.de . February 15, 2019, accessed February 16, 2019 .
  27. ^ After a dam break in Brazil - detention order for TÜV employees. In: ZDF . March 14, 2019, accessed March 17, 2019 .
  28. Accident in Brazil - a dam rupture in a retention basin. In: TÜV-Süd . February 19, 2019, accessed March 17, 2019 .
  29. Jenny Hill: Brazil dam: How German firm approved Brazil dam before it burst . In: BBC News, Brumadinho and Munich, accessed February 6, 2020.
  30. Spiegel Wirtschaft: Dam breach with 270 dead: Brazilian public prosecutor's office charges TÜV Süd . January 21, 2020, accessed February 6, 2020.
  31. Caspar Dohmen, Christoph Gurk, Klaus Ott, Nicolas Richter: Public prosecutors in Brazil and Germany are investigating the TÜV Süd . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 15, 2020, 5:27 a.m., viewed February 7, 2020.