Frankfurt (FSK). The Specialist Association for Foamed Plastics and Polyurethanes honoured Lutz Ohmstede from Bad Zwischenahn with a rare award, the FSK Gold Medal of Honour, for his services to the industry. “Her successful career is exemplary and ran parallel to our polyurethane industry,” said FSK Chairman Alfred Manderscheid in his laudation, describing Lutz Ohmstede’s almost 40-year career. After completing an apprenticeship in 1964 as a chemical laboratory assistant in Ludwigshafen, he began studying process engineering in 1971 in the field of polyurethane, a subject that was not very widespread at the time. At that time, according to FSK Chairman Manderscheid at the ceremony in Bad Zwischenahn, the Fachverband Schaumkunststoffe had just been founded. This was followed by a picture-book career in the Oldenburg region in the polyurethane industry.
In 1978 a Polyurethanes Division was founded for BÜFA, the company based there, which Lutz Ohmstede built up and finally headed as Managing Director. Lutz Ohmstede and his team developed polyurethane systems for all industries, such as furniture, construction, automotive and for countless technical applications over decades. Dr. Alexander W. Strietholt, Chairman of the Specialist Group Polyurethanes in the FSK, thanked Ohmstede as his predecessor as group spokesman for his many years of work within the association. Ohmstede not only contributed in his professional work to the fact that polyurethane has become an indispensable part of everyday life, but also built up networks with numerous industries and within the plastics industry.
He had contributed to a positive public image in Germany with sales of around EUR 5 billion and to a strong polyurethane industry in Europe. With a market share of almost 10% of the total plastics processing market, the high-performance material polyurethane had the largest market share worldwide in Germany. According to Dr. Alexander W. Strietholt, this is due to the material’s sophisticated properties and potential solutions for all industrial sectors.
On behalf of the community of Bad Zwischenahn, Mayor Dr. Schilling congratulated his rather “inconspicuous fellow citizen” for his successful career. He was pleased to be able to honor Lutz Ohmstede as such a successful entrepreneur and fellow citizen known in the polyurethane industry in his community.
Lutz Ohmstede joins the many successful fellow citizens and entrepreneurs in the community who contribute to Bad Zwischenahn having a healthy heterogeneous economic structure. According to Dr. Schilling, not only the success of the industries, but also of the communities depends on professionally successful and active fellow citizens and companies. This has brought success to Germany, which must be maintained despite the current economic situation.
So far, the FSK has awarded the Gold Medal of Honour once a year on average in almost 30 years.
Further information about the association and the honoured at the FSK under the telephone number 069-299 207 0 or e-mail: fsk@fsk-vsv.de
Caption from left to right: The FSK honoured Lutz Ohmstede (centre), starting from the far left, Dr. Alexander W. Strietholt (Dow GmbH), Albrecht Manderscheid (FSK Chairman Cannon), Dr. Arno Schilling (Mayor Bad Zwischenahn), Dr. Hans W. Schloz (FSK Managing Director)