Thermax, from India, wins 2023 IMD Global Family Business Award
A trophy designed and crafted by Chopard

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Paris, November 9th 2023 – Thermax, an engineering company headquartered in Pune, India, has been voted the winner of the 2023 IMD Global Family Business Award. Every year, this accolade provides a unique opportunity to promote the indispensable role family businesses play in the global economy and serves as a platform for family businesses to exchange best practices and analyse the economic backdrop. The award trophy in the shape of a tree, a symbol of family enterprise, was once again crafted by watch and jewellery Maison Chopard, a family-run business and loyal contributor to the Global Family Business Award since 1999.

Thermax
With a corporate history that dates back to 1966, Thermax has grown to become a worldwide reference in providing sustainable solutions in energy and environment. First established as a small, family-owned, family run manufacturing company, called Wanson India – in collaboration with a Belgian company, Thermax was born when the collaboration ended in the 1970s. With its innovative application engineering and technological expertise, Thermax today stands as a trusted partner in energy transition with its customers. The solutions offered by the company include heating, cooling, power generation (including green power), water treatment and recycling, air pollution control, and chemicals with a focus on ensuring clean air, clean energy, and clean water. The conglomerate owns 17 domestic and 20 overseas subsidiaries. The group operates through 34 international offices and 14 manufacturing facilities – ten in India and four overseas – with a presence that spans more than 90 countries around the world.

A trophy devised by Chopard with powerful tree-related symbolism
In 1999, the Scheufele Family from Chopard joined forces with IMD and has since contributed the beautifully crafted trophy. It was the brainchild of Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, who himself runs the Maison with his sister Caroline Scheufele and their parents: together, they contribute to the vitality of this independent watch and jewellery Manufacture by combining a sense of innovation with the heritage of savoir-faire handed down from generation to generation. It is in these workshops that the aluminium and glass artwork comes to life, presented to the winning company in a tree-shaped pearwood case, and symbolising all the related family values. While the roots serve as a solid anchor at the base, the branches growing towards the top from a common trunk evoke successive generations. Like this majestic tree, the family enterprises that have won the IMD Global Family Business Award over the years have been able to draw on their roots to flourish and bear abundant fruit : the trophy celebrates this permanent alliance between past and future.

“As a family Maison, it is an honour for Chopard to craft the IMD Global Family Business Award trophy each year and thus support other companies whose success is based on a similar way of operating. The awarding of this prize, which each year recognises the success of a family business, is testimony to the effectiveness of this type of organisation within the economic fabric” said Chopard Co-President Karl-Friedrich Scheufele.