“Our donations are intended to give children in need the chance of a better life.”
Dr. Tobias Ohler
Member of the WACKER Relief Fund’s Board of Directors and Executive Vice President of Siltronic AG,
Munich Headquarters
Companies can only be commercially successful if they have society’s trust, which is why we take our social responsibilities seriously, especially in communities near our sites. We place particular importance on the scientific and technical education of young people, since we will need dedicated scientists and engineers if we are to remain competitive tomorrow. Social projects to help children and adolescents represent yet another pillar of our social commitment, while the WACKER relief fund (WACKER HILFSFONDS) provides support to victims of natural disasters and helps rebuild devastated regions. As part of our social commitment, we seek enduring partnerships, focusing our investments preferably on long-term projects.
Taxes represent a major way in which WACKER contributes to society – with €220.3 million in current taxes going to governments throughout the world in 2010 (2009: €101.5 million; 2008: €200.3 million). For many years, WACKER has been the largest taxpayer in Burghausen (Germany), the location of our most important site. Due to our payments, the town reported its highest tax revenues ever in 2010. Business taxes alone generated €72 million. In addition to WACKER’s taxes, governments receive the taxes and social-security contributions paid by our employees.
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WACKER’s Donations and Sponsoring |
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€ thousand |
2010 |
2009 |
2008 | |||
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Donations |
1,011 |
924 |
1,033 | |||
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Sponsoring |
1,150 |
466 |
1,090 | |||
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Total |
2,161 |
1,390 |
2,123 | |||
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Share of sales (%) |
0.05 |
0.04 |
0.05 |
We donated roughly €1 million per year in 2009 and 2010 – roughly half of this went to the SV Wacker Burghausen sports club as part of our efforts to support popular sports at our largest site. The remaining funds went to foundations, associations and non-profit organizations.
Our sponsoring activities focus on education, science and the SV Wacker Burghausen professional soccer team. Increasing from €466,000 in 2009 to €1.15 million in 2010, our sponsoring expenses grew mainly because we changed our definition of sponsorship slightly. 2010 marked the first time, for instance, that we included the costs of WACKER’s school experiment kit and of organizing the Young Scientists (Jugend forscht) competition. WACKER also contributed €250,000 in 2010 to the newly established university foundation at the Technical University of Munich see Universities.