ETS Group receives the TOP 100 seal
TOP 100 seal: ETS Group once again part of Germany’s innovation elite
Amelinghausen, February 10, 2026 – The reward for outstanding innovative strength: ETS Group GmbH from Amelinghausen in Germany has been awarded the TOP 100 Seal 2026. This places the company among Germany’s most innovative mid-sized enterprises. At the award ceremony during the German SME Summit on June 26 in Heidelberg, Christian Wulff will personally congratulate ETS Group on this success. The former Federal President of Germany and Minister-President of the federal state Lower Saxony serves as a mentor to the TOP 100 innovation competition.
How much working time does management reserve for innovation? How many innovative ideas do employees contribute? How many innovative ideas are contributed by employees? How are staff motivated to engage constructively with improvement? And how can a company suggestion scheme provide incentives for further development? All of these questions are addressed in the scientific selection process of TOP 100. In detail, innovation researcher Professor Nikolaus Franke and his team examine five categories: innovation-promoting top management, innovation climate, innovation processes and organization, external orientation/open innovation and innovation success. The basis for this is an online questionnaire completed in advance by the participating companies.
The five categories are reflected in more than 100 assessment criteria. Franke conducts the selection process on behalf of compamedia, the organizer of the competition. “At TOP 100, we analyze thoroughly and comprehensively how innovation-oriented the applicants are. Those that are exceptionally positioned receive confirmation in the form of the TOP 100 Seal”, says Professor Nikolaus Franke.
ETS Group impressed in the selection process and has been entitled to carry the TOP 100 Seal since February 1. The company is thus once again among the innovation elite of Germany’s mid-sized sector. ETS Group operates in industrial exhaust gas and air purification for emission-critical industries and has made a name for itself particularly in the field of mobile degassing systems as well as stationary VOC exhaust air treatment. In this area, its subsidiary ETS Degassing GmbH is the European market leader, focusing on mobile tank and ship degassing. With ETS Air Systems GmbH, the Group also has a second technological pillar: stationary systems that permanently clean industrial exhaust air and reduce emissions during ongoing operations.
ETS Group develops and operates technologies that safely treat and almost completely eliminate hazardous or pollutant-laden process gases directly at the source – during maintenance shutdowns as well as in continuous plant operation. Customers from refineries, the chemical industry, tank farms, terminals and the maritime sector use ETS solutions to reduce emissions and comply with the highest safety and regulatory requirements. “For us, innovation is not a separate project, but part of our operational everyday work”, says Managing Director David Wendel. “Our customers face the challenge of reducing emissions while simultaneously meeting the highest safety and environmental standards. To this end, we develop solutions that combine technical excellence with industrial future viability.” Many advancements arise directly from practice: employees contribute their experience from deployments and they are quickly tested and implemented. The recognition with the TOP 100 Seal confirms ETS Group’s commitment to consistently linking technological responsibility with sustainable industrial processes.
To ensure equal opportunities for all participants, the TOP 100 Seal is awarded in three size categories: up to 50 employees, 51 to 200 employees and more than 200 employees. In this year’s round of TOP 100 – the 33rd round – 356 mid-sized companies applied for the seal. Of these companies, 282 were successful. A maximum of 100 companies per size category can be awarded.
The top innovators of the current year will meet on June 26 at the Heidelberg Congress Center for the German SME Summit. There, Christian Wulff will personally congratulate them on their success at TOP 100.
TOP 100: the competition
Since 1993, compamedia awards the TOP 100 Seal to mid-sized German companies for exceptional innovative strength and above-average innovation success. Scientific direction has been under Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke since 2002. Franke is founder and director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. With 27 research awards and over 200 publications, he is one of the world’s leading innovation researchers. Mentor of TOP 100 is former German Federal President and Minister-President Chrisitan Wulff. Project partners include the Fraunhofer Society for the Advancement of Applied Research and the German Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (BVMW). The magazine manager magazin accompanies the company comparison as media partner, and Zeit für Unternehmer as cooperation partner. More information and registration at www.top100.de.
About ETS Group
ETS Group is an European technology provider of mobile degassing systems and stationary exhaust air purification systems for emission-critical industries. The company supports refineries, chemical plants, tank farms, terminals and maritime sites in safely treating hazardous gas mixtures and VOC-laden exhaust air and sustainably reducing emissions. ETS combines environmental engineering, process engineering and industrial safety into integrated solutions for a lower-emission industry.
