The situ­a­tion that Sumeet Arora, the Managing Director of Uhlmann India, describes at Uhlmann’s head­quar­ters at the begin­ning of May 2021 is horrible: India is liter­ally suffo­cating. The over­crowded hospi­tals have no room for all the breath­less Covid-19 patients, and even with the best effort find it diffi­cult to keep those alive who are lucky enough to find a bed. Social media and What­sApp groups are full of desperate pleas for oxygen cylin­ders. Many people that have fallen ill with the Corona virus are dying while waiting for help. Within seven days, more than five million people are infected with the virus.

Soli­darity is an inherent compo­nent of our culture as a family-owned company.

Michael Mrachacz, CSO and Managing Director of the Uhlmann Pac-Systeme

Sumeet Arora and four other team members of Uhlmann India are infected, too, while they are serving the company at busi­ness meet­ings and service oblig­a­tions for the instal­la­tion and commis­sioning of machines at customer sites. They risk their health to “main­tain the corpo­rate motto ‘Customer First‘“, as Mr. Arora puts it, but fortu­nately recover quite quickly from the infec­tion – and are already trav­el­ling to customers again.

Help from Laupheim

But, like­wise, at Uhlmann prevails what Michael Mrachacz, CSO and Managing Director of the Uhlmann Group, describes as follows: “Soli­darity is an inherent compo­nent of our culture as a family-owned company.“

After Sumeet Arora‘s descrip­tion, it is clear: Some­thing has to be done – quickly. Mr. Mrachacz and Giacomo Rinaldi, Regional Director Asia-Pacific at Uhlmann, stay in close contact with Mr. Arora and remotely monitor the well-being of the Indian colleagues. At the same time, a team in Laupheim becomes active to procure oxygen breathing appa­ra­tuses that Uhlmann India can make avail­able to hospi­tals, for example.

We are over­whelmed. We are truly proud to be part of such a caring family.

Sumeet Arora, Managing Director Uhlmann India

Fren­zied search

Stefan Merath, who among other things serves as a company para­medic, takes over this mammoth task and coor­di­nates the search on the empty market. In the end, the team manages to find some devices online and the Uhlmann company advances the funds at short notice so that the appa­ra­tuses can be ordered quickly after the lengthy search. Stefan Merath’s team works at full speed in order to handle the purchase, the money transfer, the export and customs regu­la­tions and the dispatch in no time at all. By the end of June, they are ready: The appa­ra­tuses leave Germany by air to be trans­ported to India.

Mission accom­plished: Ship­ping Specialist Sergej Reimer, Team Leader Ship­ping Manfred Hörmann and company para­medic and Vali­da­tion Engi­neer Stefan Merath are able to ship the oxygen appa­ra­tuses.

Deepthi Shetty of the UIN Sales Depart­ment and Siddappa Vishal of the UIN Service Team received the long awaited oxygen appa­ra­tuses from Germany.

And the help is well received. Sumeet Arora says: “We, the Uhlmann India family, very much appre­ciate what the global family has done for us and we are over­whelmed. We are truly proud to be part of such a caring family.”