On Monday, September 27, 2023, we honored our employees celebrating work anniversaries during the past four years. After a long break due to the coronavirus crisis, we were finally able to celebrate together again, and we did so in our production hall 10, which we had specially prepared for this event at our main location in Haren (Ems), Germany.
The hall was transformed into a party location with a trade fair container serving as a bar and stage, a kitchen container as a show kitchen, a beverage pavilion and a coffee mobile from the Kanne Rösterei. We were thrilled to welcome our colleagues on this special evening.
A total of almost 240 colleagues were honored, with 99 celebrating their 10th, 34 their 15th, 31 their 20th, 27 their 25th, 38 their 30th and 5 their 35th anniversary. One colleague celebrated their 40th and 45th anniversary respectively.
Liesel Albers-Bentlage and Günter Albers emphasized the special setting in which the anniversary celebration took place this year, as never before have so many people been honored at once. Günter emphasized: “We are very happy that after three and a half years we are finally coming together again and celebrating a total of 240 people celebrating their anniversaries this evening. Our anniversary celebrants have a total of 4,290 years of service with the company – and that makes us particularly proud.”
The management highlighted the special nature of Michael Schmidt's anniversary, who celebrated his 45th anniversary at ELA in September and has been part of the ELA family for the longest time. When he started his journey at ELA in 1978, the company only had a handful of employees. As one of the first employees, he used to drive up to a hundred thousand kilometers a year with company founder Bernhard Albers, from customer to customer, to make ELA known throughout Germany. His special anniversary was celebrated with a round of strong applause from his fellow colleagues.
Head of HR Berthold Röttger then shared the successes of the HR department and emphasized that the proportion of women in the entire ELA Group had increased to 32.5% in recent years. Pia Albers, who has been head of the IT department since October last year, also said a few words. She is pleased to have already met many of those present and is looking forward to further cooperation. At a raffle, moderated by Hendrik Fischer and Berthold Röttger, seven lucky winners were able to take home high-quality prizes.
The culinary delights served by our head chef Nils Ludewig in the kitchen container were undoubtedly the highlight of the evening. The evening ended in a cozy atmosphere, where many memories were surely exchanged.
We hope you enjoyed the party and would like to thank all jubilees for their many years of loyalty and commitment!