Germany and Europe faced a “perfect storm” on the continent’s economic outlook, said Hartmut Jenner, head of German cleaning equipment maker Kärcher. Geopolitical crises are darkening the European economy. “The unpredictable trade policy of the U.S. keeps threatening, without warning, to raise tariffs and erect trade barriers a toxic scenario for free global trade and export-oriented companies,” he wrote in an exclusive opinion article for Euronews. Since 2001, Jenner, 61, has led Kärcher, tripling its employees and turnover in the process.
Now he is warning of a slump in the German economy: “The loss of tens of thousands of industrial jobs and the fall in production volume show that deindustrialization is not an abstract threat – it is happening right now.”It must be evident even to the most hopeful observer, when negotiations on plant closures and production relocations are taking place in key German industries such as automotive and manufacturing: “We are at a critical juncture,” he added. So far, Kärcher has survived these hard times, Jenner added.
The company spends extensively in research and development and sets benchmarks in cleaning robots, battery technologies and the digitisation of all sectors of the business. The company says it has more than 1,000 people globally working in research and development.
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