SEW Eurodrive wins Top Gender Empowered Company Award in Engineering sector
SEW Eurodrive South Africa was announced as the winner of the Top Gender Empowered Company award in the Mining, Engineering
and Construction sector during a glamorous awards ceremony held in Johannesburg on 18 November 2009.
The awards form part of the Top Woman in Business and Government Awards which is held annually. This award goes to the company that demonstrates the most success in tackling and improving gender empowerment in their respective
sector. Important factors are measurable and accountable leadership that is committed to developing women in the company and
the per capita expenditure on training, education and development of women.
Accepting the award on behalf of the company, Ms Ute Bormann commented that company has made a natural progression towards
employing women. “It has been the outlook of SEW Eurodrive to employ people according to their skills and natural ability
not focusing on race and sex . Women have a natural attention to detail, something which is of extreme importance in engineering, and probably in any business.”
SEW Eurodrive is an international family owned business with head office in Germany. The company employs 13 000 employees
worldwide. In South Africa the company has 6 branches and 170 employees.
The company specializes in drive engineering with the supply of mechanical gearboxes of all sizes for use in most industrial
applications. The mechanical products are complimented by a range of electronic control components to manage motion control.
Engineering is a largely male dominated arena. SEW Eurodrive South Africa has made a point of employing females in management
positions. “We sometimes find our clients taken aback by the fact that it is woman on the other end of the line, but it has
had a positive effect in the industry. SEW Eurodrive is known as an unconventional engineering company and our marketing has
been rated top in the industry. In fact we recently won the Frost and Sullivan Award for Market Leadership in our category”
adds Bormann.
The company has added women in senior positions such as General Manager: Sales and Marketing, General Manager: Operations,
National Marketing Manager, Financial Manager, National Stock Controller, Exports Co-Ordinator, Head of Internal Sales and
as a Non Executive Director
The sales figures have also flourished under the management of Ms Ute Bormann, GM Sales and Marketing, who manages a large
sales team of male engineers. Bormann was also a finalist in the Top Woman Executive Award.
According to Bormann the industry has responded positively to the finesse and logical problem solving abilities which women
have brought to the company.
The General Manager Operations for SEW Eurodrive is a woman with an engineering qualification who has brought systems and
order to the operational side of the business. She overseas 6 factories nationwide which employs over 80 assemblers, pickers,
fitters and turners, repairs and maintenance personnel, etc.
Women in the company receive the backing of the management team and according to other female staff in the company SEW Eurodrive
has made great strides to uplift the status of women in the engineering field.
