20 years – a masterpiece

Company anniversary for Arne Ulrich: The jubilarian from Germany’s most northwestern town Norden started as an apprentice at HP Velotechnik two decades ago and is now workshop manager at the recumbent bike manufacturer

Kriftel. HP Velotechnik celebrated a milestone anniversary with its employees: Arne Ulrich has been with the company for 20 years – only the two founders and managing directors, Paul Hollants and Daniel Pulvermüller, have been with the company longer than him.

The 40-year-old started his apprenticeship as a bike mechanic with the recumbent specialists in 2004. In 2012, Ulrich, who was born in Norden (East Frisia), was appointed workshop manager and was responsible for eight mechanics at the time. In 2018, he passed his master’s examination at the Federal College for the German Two-Wheeler Mechanic Trade in Frankfurt. Since then, he has successfully guided more than 20 apprentices into the world of craftmanship and has also helped to drive forward important technical innovations in the production of two and three-wheelers made in Kriftel.

At the ceremony, the two founders expressed their gratitude for the loyalty and reliability of Ulrich, who describes himself as an “absolute bicycle enthusiast”. He has taken part in several recumbent championships and could even be seen on a 630 km non-stop day trip by velomobile to his home in northern Germany.

******** Background HP Velotechnik ********

HP Velotechnik, founded in 1993 by Paul Hollants and Daniel Pulvermüller, manufactures approx. 2,000 recumbents per year in the factory in Kriftel near Frankfurt with 50 employees (including six trainees) and is thus market leader in Europe. The bikes are built individually by hand according to the customers wish and sold in specialist bicycle shops. All signs point to future growth: HP Velotechnik exports more and more bikes and trikes to more distant regions such as Australia, Japan, or South Africa. This successful business strategy was honored in 2017 with the “Hessian Export Prize”, which is jointly awarded by the State of Hesse and the Hessian Chambers of Crafts and Industry and Commerce. Most recently, the recumbent bike manufacturer received an award from the German Social Democratic Party (SPD): The grouping of the Working Group of the Self-employed in the Party presented the “AGS Award for Innovation 2019” for the “innovative mobility” of the bikes.

HP Velotechnik has developed 15 recumbent models that cover the entire range from everyday bikes to racing bikes. All models are available with powerful electric motors on request. Recently, the models from the Scorpion series caused a sensation, winning the renowned “Eurobike Award” design prize three times in a row. Most recently, in 2013 the trike Scorpion fs Enduro and in 2014 the Scorpion plus 20 as a therapy trike. The last time the Scorpion fs 26 S-Pedelec won this award at the world’s most important bicycle trade fair Eurobike was in 2018 as a vehicle in the fast class with pedal assistance up to 45 km/h.

Even as schoolchildren, the company founders Hollants and Pulvermüller became national winners of the JUTEC Youth and Technology competition of the Association of German Engineers – the foundation of the development from a garage laboratory to one of Germany’s most innovative bicycle companies. Since 2006 HP Velotechnik has been awarded as one of the three best bicycle manufacturers in Germany by the industry association VSF several times.

20 years – a masterpiece

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