Johns Manville Employees Join German Forklift Competition

Since ancient times, people have been competing in all kinds of contests to find out who is the best. Today, there are countless contests, including one you may not have heard about, but which is particularly important for the JM plant in Wertheim: The German Forklift Championship.

At this annual event, participants demonstrate their driving skills and their ability to operate a forklift. JMers from the German site have been participating in this tournament for many years. In 2021 and 2022, three JMers made it to the regional elimination round, which qualifies the top three finishers for the nationwide championship organized by the global chemical company Linde.

Waste Removal Specialist Wolfgang Kemmer, Intralogistics Leader Stefanie Schuste and Warehouse Operator Robert Wolz represented Team JM and competed against 80 other forklift drivers.

Demonstrating their talents and experience, all three achieved outstanding results:

• Wolfgang placed sixth in both 2021 and 2022
• Stefanie achieved third place in 2021 and an impressive first place in 2022
• Robert placed 10th in 2021.  

Recently, representatives of Linde’s biggest contractual partner, Suffel, which is also JM Wertheim’s supplier of forklifts, visited the plant after a year's break due to COVID-19 to present the employees with their winners’ certificates.

“We are very proud of our colleagues, and we are glad that they have been able to represent us so successfully at this event,” said Andreas Emmert, Supply Chain Leader Glass.

Stefanie, who has won the championship title three times already, added: “The course is challenging but also very fun. All JMers in Germany are welcome to participate.”