More than half a year in advance, all employees block out this date and look forward to the event: once a year, we celebrate a special event at Haufe Group, our Summer Festival. We look back on our past financial year, start a new one with motivation and, above all, create shared moments - because our diversity in the community is what makes us special.
It's a warm summer evening and the sun is shining on a vacant car dealership in the middle of Freiburg's Haid industrial estate. At first glance, the gray building looks inconspicuous. If it weren't for the crowd that has gathered in front of the site in the last half hour. The three-dimensional lime-colored rhombus at the main entrance, through which these people gradually enter the building. The brass band that suddenly starts playing. Or the illuminated letters on the roof of the building that reveal what is happening here: Summer Festival.
It's July 5, 2024 and it's the evening of Haufe Group’s Summer Festival. A festival with cult status within the company - for months, our employees look forward to the event and the soccer and beach volleyball tournament on the same day, where teams from different areas and locations of Haufe Group compete against each other.
This year in particular, the anticipation was great, as it is the first Summer Festival after the launch of our new corporate identity in April 2024 and thus in the new Haufe Group design. Today we are celebrating together that we are continuing the successful growth story of Haufe Group and growing together towards the future.
An evening full of Haufe Group spirit
As you enter the area, you walk under blue balloons, past a station where the first guests are already having glitter applied to their cheeks and beards by make-up artists. Past a disco ball-style photo booth, in front of which queues form. And past a graffiti wall where employees pull out their spray cans to immortalize themselves.
Past numerous food trucks and bars, where colleagues can refresh themselves and get into conversation - to the stage, the centerpiece of the evening. On this stage, presenter Stefan Mayer, known as the stadium announcer for SC Freiburg, welcomes all ten Haufe Group locations. Everyone has been invited and almost 2,000 employees from all corners of Germany, Romania and Spain have come. Stefan sets the mood for the evening before bringing CEO Birte Hackenjos and CFO Harald Wagner on stage. After a brief review of the highlights of the financial year, Advisory Board Chair Andrea Haufe joins them. To loud applause, she officially opens the event: "The Summer Festival is open" - and a magical evening begins!
"The Summer Festival is the day on which our spirit can be experienced in full," summarizes CEO Birte. "I always look forward to talking to great people and celebrating a successful year together." Because these encounters shape the way we work together.
"An all-round package that packs our diversity into one evening - that was the aim of our project team," says Silke Molling, Senior Corporate Communications Manager and part of the interdisciplinary team from Communications, Brand and Fairs & Events departments, which prepared the event in close collaboration with the support of our partner agencies. From the stage program and special activities to free bus and cab shuttles to get everyone home safely: The day was to be diverse and full of surprises. "We wanted to celebrate each and every individual and at the same time always focus on the shared experience," says Silke.
A car dealership site becomes a Haufe Group World
Finding the right location for such an event is a particular challenge. After intensive research, we chose the vacant Südwest-Auto site in Freiburg's Haid industrial estate. 9,900 square meters of unused space, which we were able to design completely freely before the site is demolished and replaced by a mix of office and restaurant spaces.
A unique opportunity in the immediate vicinity of our campus, which is also in line with our sustainability ambitions - but required imagination and courage. "Initially, few people could imagine that we could breathe life into an abandoned car dealership. But in the evening, many were amazed at what we got out of the place. Our project team really did a great job and transformed the site into a Haufe Group world within a very short space of time with the help of innovative ideas, a great utilization concept and our new corporate design," says Silke happily.
