Our success is not for sale September 7th, 2015

Last Friday, our UK competitor published a statement on its website that it has appointed an ex member of staff from our subsidiary company CITO UK. First of all, we must make it clear that the person they have recruited was not the Sales Director of CITO, but a member of the sales staff at CITO UK.

We have around 250 employees in our Europe-wide organisation who are loyal to CITO, and we feel bound to defend the honour of these genuine and sincere staff. It is an unfortunate fact that, throughout life, we see many times how some people can be bought. This is always a disappointment in people terms, but such disappointments have absolutely no impact on the fundamental values of our company. Our guarantor for the CITO vision at our UK subsidiary company is Managing Director John Bray, who has been my personal business companion for over 30 years. For the past 18 years, he has acted as mentor for this sales person so John, too, is naturally disappointed – but both CITO and CITO UK are made up of far more than one single employee.

Our success is based on our shared values and visions, but our UK competitor may have different values and therefore cannot comprehend those of CITO, nor our economic success. CITO is an owner-managed company of almost 110 years’ standing and we are not driven by a shareholder value mentality or quarterly reports to our shareholders. Our thinking is long-term and the most important issue for us is what benefits we give our customers, which is why CITO will continue for many decades to come. On an entertaining note, our competitor describes itself in this statement as “the world leading manufacturer of creasing matrix” – where this reputation comes from is a mystery to us! CITO is the undisputed world leader in this sector, as far as the volumes produced and sold are concerned, as well as being technology leaders. However, this isn’t important to us as our company goes by the motto “Partner for Success”. As well as our own success, we want our customers, suppliers and employees to be successful, too. No-one will divert us from this path – because this is the soul of CITO and that is not for sale.

September 7th, 2015

Jürgen Marien

Jürgen Marien
majority owner and managing director of CITO GROUP