TÜV SÜD is celebrating the company’s 150th anniversary this year. TÜV SÜD was born from the creation of the Mannheim-based Association for the Inspection and Insurance of Steam Boilers in January 1866, whose mission was to carry out regular steam-boiler inspections to prevent accidents

Today TÜV SÜD has more than 22,600 employees and a global network of operations, including TÜV SÜD in the UK, which operates in 30 locations across the country and employs over 600 people, providing testing, inspection, certification and consulting services to such diverse markets as energy, real estate and manufacturing.

Michael Valente, CEO of TÜV SÜD in the UK, said: “Our success is testament to the huge amount of integrity and commitment of our staff. We look forward to many more years in pursuing our role of ensuring quality, safety and sustainability.”

The global TÜV SÜD Group owes its present strength and position to numerous mergers and acquisitions over the past two decades, a strategy that the company will follow consistently in 2016, its anniversary year. As part of its anniversary celebrations, TÜV SÜD will focus on four strategic themes that they believe will shape the narrative of commerce and society for centuries to come: sustainable development, consumer protection, digital transformation and urbanization, all areas in which TÜV SÜD in the UK is already involved.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Axel Stepken, Chairman of the Board of Management of TÜV SÜD AG, said: “In Germany, the idea of technical safety was born with foundation of the Mannheim-based association in 1866. Our company’s mission has remained the same ever since: by applying technical expertise, TÜV SÜD makes technology safe, reliable and sustainable. Our activities ensure that people can trust in technology – and that customers can trust in their suppliers, even though they may be thousands of kilometres apart.

“In 2015, TÜV SÜD will achieve revenue of around EUR 2.2 billion – a year-on-year plus of around 6.5 per cent. We have thus succeeded in doubling our consolidated revenue over the past ten years,” Stepken concluded.

TÜV SÜD invested massively in ongoing business in fiscal year 2015, with capital expenditures increasing by 38 per cent year-on-year to its present level of EUR 94 million. The number of people working for TÜV SÜD also rose significantly in 2015 and is now at over 22,600 employees globally. The testing and inspection organisation has welcomed around 1,000 new employees on board in every single year of the past two decades.