06/10/2021 | Press Releases

Top talents, satisfied employees and plenty of space for innovation: three accolades for Kuraray

Hattersheim, May 2021. Giving talented young people a successful start to their careers is important to Kuraray. Now the business magazine Focus Money and the consumer platform Deutschland Test have ranked this speciality chemicals producer as one of Germany's best companies for vocational training. Kuraray scored 100 out of 100 points, placing it at the head of the chemical industry this year.

 Kuraray Europe, which is based in Hattersheim am Main, Germany, and has sites in Troisdorf and Frankfurt, has also received top scores from its employees in other areas, such as career development and training opportunities and combining work with family life. As in the past, Kuraray did very well in the “Top Employer 2021” ranking by Focus Business and the employer review platform Kununu. A third accolade shows that Kuraray offers a working environment with space to develop ideas and technologies for the future: the F.A.Z. Institute, which is part of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung media group, and market research company Prognos have named this speciality chemicals company among Germany's innovation leaders.

“I’m delighted that Kuraray was once again able to convince Focus Money in this year’s ranking of companies’ vocational training and that we came top of the chemical sector with 100 points,” says Dominique Buono, HR Training & Development Partner at Kuraray. “It's great that our apprentices feel happy with us. And of course the award testifies to the outstanding work of the colleagues involved in all aspects of vocational training.”

Focus Money uses artificial intelligence to determine the quality of training

For this ranking, Focus Money and Deutschland Test evaluate Germany's 20,000 biggest employers in 90 sectors, including the chemical industry. Factors evaluated include how successful apprentices are in their training courses, their remuneration and additional offerings. Positive reviews of vocational training also play a part. Artificial intelligence is used to analyse texts and comments, for example, in social networks and online media, and calculate a score for each company. The top vocational training enterprise in each sector is awarded 100 points and is used as a benchmark for the other companies.

Family-friendly working conditions and career opportunities 

Employees’ assessments also play a key role in the “Top Employer” ranking. For this, Focus Business analyses employee reviews of their employer on Kununu using a multi-step process. To enhance comparability, the 1,000 best companies in 36 sectors are subdivided into two groups: mid-sized enterprises with up to 2,000 employees and large corporations with more than 2,000 employees. Kuraray once again achieved a very good position among the Top 5 chemical companies with up to 2,000 employees thanks to family-friendly policies such as flexible worktime models, its modern working environment and wide-ranging career development and training opportunities.

A workplace that fosters tomorrow's innovative materials

“We want to offer Kuraray employees a modern working environment and an atmosphere where they feel happy and there is space for innovations to develop,” says Karl-Heinz Michel, Head of Human Resources at Kuraray. “Thanks to our employees’ commitment and excellent ideas, we can offer industry solutions that help them shape the future. Many of our materials already make an important contribution, for example, in enabling 5G technologies and driving forward sustainability.” A further accolade shows how successful Kuraray's future-oriented philosophy is: the F.A.Z. Institute and Prognos once again included Kuraray in their ranking of Germany's innovation leaders in 2021 in recognition of its research and development work on future technologies.

About Kuraray

Established in 1991, Kuraray Europe GmbH is based in Hattersheim, near Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In 2020 the company generated annual sales of EUR 593 million. It has more than 800 employees in Germany at its sites in Hattersheim, Frankfurt and Troisdorf. Kuraray is a global speciality chemicals company and one of the largest suppliers of industrial polymers and synthetic microfibres for many sectors of industry. Examples are Kuraray Poval™, Mowital^®, Trosifol^® and Clearfil™. Kuraray Europe also has around 215 employees at six other European sites. They are also working on the development and application of innovative high-performance materials for a wide range of sectors, including the automotive, paper, glass and packaging industries, as well as for architects and dentists. 

Kuraray Europe is a wholly owned subsidiary of the publicly listed Kuraray Co., Ltd., which is based in Tokyo, Japan, and has more than 11,200 employees worldwide and sales of EUR 4.4 billion. 

Dr. Bettina Plaumann
Head of KEG Communications & Marketing
Kuraray Europe GmbH
Philipp-Reis-Straße 4
65795 Hattersheim am Main, Germany
Phone: +49 69 305 85797
Email: Bettina.Plaumann(at)kuraray.com 

Christopher Kampfmann
Wortwahl – Agentur für Unternehmens- und Onlinekommunikation
Bahnhofstraße 123
63263 Neu-Isenburg, Germany
Phone: +49 6102 36678-22
Email: kampfmann(at)wortwahl.de 

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Captions/source of photos: Kuraray

Training and fostering talented young people: Vocational training of young people is very important to Kuraray. Now, Focus Money and Deutschland Test have honoured the commitment of this speciality chemicals producer by naming it one of Germany's best companies for vocational training. With a score of 100 points, Kuraray heads the chemical industry ranking.

“I’m delighted that Kuraray has come top in the chemical industry in this year’s ranking of Germany's best companies for vocational training,” says Dominique Buono, HR Training & Development Partner at Kuraray (pictured). “The award testifies to the outstanding work of the colleagues involved in all aspects of vocational training - and it's great that our apprentices are happy with us.”

Creating space for innovations to flourish: Kuraray offers its employees a modern working environment, family-friendly flexible worktime models and extensive career development and training opportunities. The positive working atmosphere is reflected in the company's reviews on Kununu, which form the basis for the selection of Germany’s top employees by Focus Business.