The Vaillant Group is a company that develops products for heating, cooling and hot water. The company employs ~17,000 people worldwide and generates an annual turnover of approximately 3.7 billion euros. This makes the Vaillant Group one of the largest companies in its sector in Europe. The family-owned company is a global market leader in the wall-hung boiler segment. The Group's activities focus on the development of green products, and energy-saving and environmentally friendly products in particular, with the aim of achieving sustainable and profitable growth. The Vaillant Group's headquarters are located in

Remscheid Remscheid () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is, after Wuppertal and Solingen, the third-largest municipality in Bergisches Land, being located on the northern edge of the region, on the south ...

, North Rhine-Westphalia. The company is still one-hundred per cent family owned today.

History

The history of the Vaillant Group dates back to 1874, when Johann Vaillant set up a master fitter's business. In 1894 Johann Vaillant patented a new "closed-system" gas-fired bathroom boiler. This was the first device that made it possible to heat water hygienically, without contaminating it with combustion gases. This was a great technical innovation at the time and Johann Vaillant had a lasting impact on the development of heating technology. At the same time, he opened up a new market segment. In 1924 a further technical milestone was reached, with the development of the first

central heating A central heating system provides warmth to a number of spaces within a building from one main source of heat. It is a component of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (short: HVAC) systems, which can both cool and warm interior spaces. ...

boiler. This device made it possible to heat a whole building with a central heating unit and several radiators in various rooms – a system that is still in use to this day. Notable landmarks in the company's history include the launch of the first wall-hung circulation water heater, the Circo Geyser, in 1961, and the first wall-hung water heater with condensing boiler technology that was developed and produced in-house in 1995. 2001 saw the internationalisation and expansion of the Vaillant Group's brand and product portfolio and its sales and production network, following the acquisition of the British Hepworth Group. The company continued down this path of internationalisation with the acquisition of a majority stake in the Turkish heating and air-conditioning technology specialist Türk Demir Döküm Fabrikalari in 2007. For several years the Vaillant Group has increasingly focused on technologies based on renewable energies. In 2006 the company began to produce

heat pumps A heat pump is a device that can heat a building (or part of a building) by transferring thermal energy from the outside using a refrigeration cycle. Many heat pumps can also operate in the opposite direction, cooling the building by removing h ...

and in 2008

solar thermal collector A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight. The term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating, but may refer to large power generating installations such as solar parabolic troughs and sola ...

s independently and on an industrial scale. Today, products based on gas condensing technology and heat pumps as well as systems which combine several building technologies constitute the company's main business.

Brands

The Vaillant Group has eight international brands. The company's brands are managed separately in the European and non-European markets and can be found in more than 60 countries. The Vaillant Group brand family includes the following: * Vaillant (founded in 1874, Germany) * Saunier Duval (1907, France) * awb (1934, Netherlands) * Bulex (1934, Belgium) * DemirDöküm (1954, Turkey) * Glow-worm (1934, United Kingdom) * Hermann Saunier Duval(1970, Italy) * Protherm (1991, Czechoslovakia) The Glow-worm brand in the United Kingdom and the Saunier Duval brands in France were part of Vaillant's acquisition of British competitor Hepworth Limited in 2000. In the UK, the group markets both the Vaillant and Glow-worm brands.

Sites

The Group has ten sites for R&D and manufacturing in five European countries, Turkey and China. There are three sites in Germany (

, Bergheim, Roding). In Slovakia there are three manufacturing plants in

Trenčín Trenčín (, also known by other alternative names) is a city in western Slovakia of the central Váh River valley near the Czech border, around from Bratislava. It has a population of more than 55,000, which makes it the eighth largest municip ...

Skalica Skalica (german: Skalitz, hu, Szakolca, Latin: ''Sakolcium'') is the largest town in Skalica District in western Slovakia in the Záhorie region. Located near the Czech border, Skalica has a population of around 15,000. Etymology The name is deri ...

and

Senica Senica (; german: Senitz; hu, Szenice) is a town in Trnava Region, western Slovakia. It is located in the north-eastern part of the Záhorie lowland, close to the Little Carpathians. Etymology The name is derived from the word ''seno'' (" hay" ...

. Further sites include

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

(France),

Belper Belper is a town and civil parish in the local government district of Amber Valley in Derbyshire, England, located about north of Derby on the River Derwent. As well as Belper itself, the parish also includes the village of Milford and the ha ...

(UK), Vitoria (ES), Bozüyük (Turkey) and Wuxi (China).

Products

The Vaillant Group's products cover heating, ventilation and air-conditioning. The company has thus positioned itself as a full-range supplier. Vaillant's core range includes wall-hung and floor-standing

condensing boiler Condensing boilers are water heaters typically used for heating systems that are fueled by gas or oil. When operated in the correct circumstances, a heating system can achieve high efficiency (greater than 90% on the higher heating value) by cond ...

solar thermal Solar thermal energy (STE) is a form of energy and a technology for harnessing solar energy to generate thermal energy for use in industry, and in the residential and commercial sectors. Solar thermal collectors are classified by the United Sta ...

systems for hot water and heating,

heat pump A heat pump is a device that can heat a building (or part of a building) by transferring thermal energy from the outside using a refrigeration cycle. Many heat pumps can also operate in the opposite direction, cooling the building by removing h ...

technologies, ventilation systems for low-energy houses, control technology, gas and electric water heaters, air-conditioning systems, radiators and related services.

Prizes and awards

The Vaillant Group has won several awards over the years, including the following: * 40 iF Industrie Forum Design Awards *

Red Dot Design Award The Red Dot Design Award is a German international design prize awarded by Red Dot GmbH & Co. KG. There are prize categories for product design, brands and communication design, and design concept. Since 1955, designers and producers can appl ...

(2011, 2010, 2009, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2002, 2017, 2018) * German Sustainability Award for the most sustainable product (2011) * B.A.U.M. Environmental Award (2014) * German Sustainability Award as Germany's most sustainable large company (2015)

Publications

The Vaillant Group publishes an annual magazine ''Annual magazine''
/ref> with information about the company's development and an annual sustainability report. Alongside these corporate reports, the Group also publishes the employee magazine Life and the Internet blog "21grad".

References

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External links

Vaillant Group
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning companies Manufacturing companies of Germany Companies based in North Rhine-Westphalia German brands Family-owned companies