Gütersloh, 01/21/2021

Bertelsmann Invests €60 million at Gütersloh Location in Fiscal 2020

In the past year, fiscal 2020, Bertelsmann strengthened its companies and divisions based in Gütersloh with investments totaling € 60 million. Despite the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic, investments remained at a high level after € 72 million in the previous year. The funds flowed primarily into Arvato Systems, Arvato Supply Chain Solutions, and Arvato Financial Solutions. Mohn Media successfully advanced its own development with the execution of its “Modernizing Mohn Media” strategy project. At the same time, Bertelsmann supported close to 200 organizations, associations, and projects around its Gütersloh headquarters last year with a total of € 200,000 and donations in kind, including more than 5,000 books and audiobooks.

Bertelsmann Chairman & CEO Thomas Rabe said: “2020 was an exceptional year – one that changed the world and whose effects will continue to preoccupy us for a long time to come. The top priority was to protect our 126,000 employees worldwide and keep our businesses going. We succeeded in doing both. In addition to important strategic decisions, such as the full acquisition of the international trade publishing group Penguin Random House in April and the agreement to acquire the Simon & Schuster Verlagsgruppe in November, we also reorganized the Corporate Center in Gütersloh so that we can continue to successfully advance Bertelsmann’s development from here in the years to come. Gütersloh will continue to be home to and of central importance to Bertelsmann.”

Around 10,500 employees work for the international media, services and education company in the greater Gütersloh area. In August 2020, 93 new apprentices and dual students began their training at Bertelsmann in the region.

Bertelsmann supported regional organizations and institutions including the Gütersloh Theater, the city library, the Vesperkirche church, the Gütersloh Tafel food bank, and several schools and kindergartens in 2020. On the occasion of Germany’s nationwide Reading Aloud Day, Bertelsmann gave all children at Gütersloh daycare centers the gift of an audiobook, since physical reading-aloud sessions were not possible in Corona Year 2020. Shortly before Christmas, the company donated € 25,000 to the Bielefeld-based palliative initiative “Der Weg nach Hause” (The Way Home) for the 14th time. In total, Bertelsmann has supported the initiative with more than € 350,000 since 2006.

Bertelsmann plans to keep investing in its companies and divisions at the Gütersloh site in the current fiscal year 2021. In addition, this year the company is honoring its post-war founder and long-time CEO Reinhard Mohn, who would have turned 100 on June 29.