"Mittelstand" - Backbone of the German Economy
"Mittelstand"-companies in Germany employ approximately 70% of all employees and hold a share of 48.8% of gross value added of all companies, and 43.5% of total gross value added (including the State), respectively
1. In 2000, roughly 65,000 companies (of those more than 20,000 in the industrial sector), fell within the annual revenue range of Euro 5 to 75 million, defined as the target investment category by Wieland Capital. Many of those companies operate in profitable, often small niche markets and manufacture premium goods and products. If only one to two percent of such companies are sold per year, this translates into a theoretical potential of approximately 200 to 400 companies per year sold in the manufacturing sector alone.
In addition, the trend continues for mid-sized and large companies and conglomerates to focus their management capacity on their respective core businesses,
driving divestiture of non-core activities.
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1 Compare IfM Bonn, Unternehmensgrößenstatistik 2001/2002 - Daten und Fakten, S. 21ff.; Please note that "gross value added" is equal to gross domestic product (GDP) prior to subtracting bank charges and the net result of taxes on goods minus subsidies.
