Our history

We receive many personal letters from our customers. Time and again, homeowners emphasise how carefully and cleanly our employees have worked on their homes. Thanks to our excellently managed specialist companies, we manage to exceed our customers' expectations time and again.

And our approximately 1,000 employees in the group are people in whom we believe 100 percent! With our numerous training courses from the ISOTEC Academy and the best trainers in Germany, we support our employees so that they can achieve their professional goals.

Together we look back on a successful, beautiful and moving time. A time that shows: dreams can come true, just like my dream came true with ISOTEC!

And you never achieve great things alone, but always together, as a team.

Horst Becker

In 1983, I founded the company “Horst Becker Isoliertechnik”. I was in my second semester of business studies and wanted to get my own business going at the same time. I am particularly thankful to my parents for their wonderful support, especially during the initial phase. My mother, Annie, patiently answered phone calls and conveyed the professional familiarity of a family business. And my father, Rudi, was there whenever I needed his support or his advice. 

The paraffin technology was a critical factor for our success. A friend of my parents - Friedrich Röhrmann - loved to fiddle about and found out that it was possible to permanently protect walls against moisture by applying a certain wax called paraffin. Until today, the paraffin technology has been one of the main pillars of our success. In 1986, the company receives its new name “Gebrüder Becker GmbH”.

In 1990, I started to diversify my business idea and the success of “Gebrüder Becker GmbH”. In the mid-80s, during my studies, I had already attended a talk by professor Creusen, who was the right-hand man of Manfred Maus, the founder of OBI (German chain of hardware stores). Creusen explained the basic principles of franchising. However, he attributed the company’s success, and that of franchising in general,to human efforts:

• Love of freedom
• Creative drive
• Self-determination

I still remember to this day, how this talk inspired me. In 1990, although the “Gebrüder Becker GmbH” continued to exist, it started to take the role of a parent enterprise. We wanted to diversify on the basis of the franchising principle

Although we were successful, experts remained very critical. Some even thought it was simply ridiculous to try sealing buildings with paraffin. I soon felt determined to add a theoretical foundation to our experience and was thankful for my brother’s technical support. I also found a faithful companion in the professor and Dr. Jürgen Dreyer, who later became a full professor at the TU Wien (Technical University of Vienna). Together we developed new techniques and patents. Nowadays, all renowned institutions (BAM, WTA, TU Hamburg-Harburg, TU Wien) confirm the highest effectiveness of the ISOTEC Paraffin Technology.

I clearly remember the initial phase of our franchising. Peter Luthe and Peter Kreiner were among our first franchise partners. They started off so successfully that only four years later they were granted the “Franchise Partner of the Year” award by the German franchise association. This was an incredible success for all of us.

It was all very time consuming, of course. But the company just didn't have enough time. During this period, my brother, Klaus-Dieter Becker, was of great help. He left his secure job as employee and has since been part of our company.

We then complemented the ISOTEC services with the technical drying systems and the ISOTEC Climate Board - a solution against condensation and mould damage.

Our growing reputation among experts allowed ISOTEC to collaborate with important research groups and standards committees. But the adopted guidelines did not meet the quality standards at ISOTEC.

I had been convinced from the very beginning that ISOTEC had to think, feel and act from a customer’s point of view in all aspects. Our main criteria has always been the provision of impeccable quality. Since I knew that some construction materials were deficient and did not benefit the customer, it was clear to me that we needed stricter quality standards for ISOTEC. At that point we developed the “ISOTEC Guidelines”, which determine the precise renovation process and the use of materials.

In addition, all of our ISOTEC partners and their staff are obligated to regularly engage in our training programmes. 

I also remember the year 1996 very well. The beginnings of the emerging internet age, when we registered the isotec.de domain. At first, it only served as a digital business card, since there was only a single page.

Further development of ISOTEC has only been possible thanks to the ideas and experiences of our ISOTEC partners. The foundation of the Partner Advisory Board, which advises Headquarters on strategies and future concepts, was an appropriately sequential and important decision. It helps the ISOTEC Group and me to be aware of recent developments and to always respond to our customers’ needs in the most effective way.

Apart from a secure and high-quality renovation of moisture and mould damages, ISOTEC is also offering a secure future to new potential entrepreneurs, as ISOTEC partners. This was also acknowledged by the “Deutscher Franchise-Verband” (German franchise association) and the German business magazine “impulse”. In 1998, both of them awarded ISOTEC with the “Franchise-Geber-Preis” (award for franchisors).

The award as best German franchise system has motivated my team and me to promote further innovations. After ten years, in 2000, ISOTEC sparked important incentives to improve its public appearance. We resigned our logo and revised our complete business communication. The appearance of ISOTEC became more modern.

We also significantly changed the way we communicated with our customers. From today’s point of view this was the beginning of a new era - at least for ISOTEC and its staff. We refrained from the very technical language and began to explain technical and complex problems from the customer’s point of view. Understandability was the new keyword. 

Our formula for success has since been: understandable communication that creates confidence. Our online references and customer reviews, for example, give insight into what a successful renovation looks like for real ISOTEC customers - there is no falseness or attenuation. For me, this was and still is true authenticity and trust-building between the customer and us.

During this period of time we tried to accelerate customer communications and, through the emergence of the internet, to allow them a transparent glance into our company and its numerous franchise partners.

We developed our leading position in the field of renovation through technical experiments and product extension where the energy efficiency of buildings played an important role. The stimulus for this is our technology committee which is composed of engineers from our technology department, owners as well as experts from our franchise partners who drive ISOTEC forward technologically. 

We also made very good progress with our training and development. We enhanced our professional development strategy and established training modules. Every year, around 800 people of the ISOTEC Group are passing through our programme. Also, many of our franchise partners are constantly training young people and the ISOTEC Group has evolved into one of the leading training companies in its field. 

During this period we also developed our ISOTEC partner network. I am particularly happy to see how quickly new partners are gaining ground and becoming successful in the market as entrepreneurs. Lars Bobach, from Leichlingen/Germany, was the first ISOTEC partner who was granted the German franchisee award in 2005.

In recent years, ISOTEC has undergone the developments I had imagined 25 years ago. I didn’t expect it to turn out this way. Looking at what we have achieved so far, I’m not only astonished and happy, but also deeply thankful.

We are represented in all German-speaking countries as well as in Majorca. About 500 people are working for ISOTEC in 85 companies and 120 locations. This allows us the proximity to our customers that is so important to us. This success would have been impossible without our improvements over the past five years. And there have been more successful ISOTEC entrepreneurs: In 2014, Ralf Stutz and Volker Kortholt also received the German franchisee award. 

But the heart of ISOTEC has been and always will be its staff - in our headquarters as well as in each ISOTEC partner company. They are putting into practice our values of quality and customer focus. I’m happy about every person who joins our group.

More quality products were added. The ISOTEC Flexband, for example, is a high-quality method to securely protect concrete components against the penetration of water through cracks.

We have further developed our communications. I can already say that we have accomplished something that many companies haven’t so far: the transfer from the analogue world into the digital world. Our online presence is quite strong and we are eager to consolidate our competitive edge in this field. We want to intensify the communications with our clients even more and social media offers great possibilities for this: open, honest, transparent, at eye level. That’s how we also want to communicate in the future.

To accept challenges and to be consistent is not a contradiction from our point of view. As enthusiastic as we are about innovation, we feel equally commitment towards our values.

The ISOTEC Guiding Principles and 5 ISOTEC Terms of Engagement have served as a reliable compass over the last 25 years and will continue to lead us in the future.

2016 was a very important year for the ISOTEC group. Our employees really are the heart of our company. We are delighted to have reached our objective for 2016 with over 600 members of staff working at the ISOTEC Group, because this shows how many people trust and want to work with us. Perhaps the great interest of applicants has something to do with our advertising campaign, which we have been airing on the local radio in North Rhine-Westphalia since last year. The radio ads were an important step for us and we got excellent feedback.

We also won the Gold F&C Award, for the fifth time in a row, for 
the successful way we manage our franchises. Of course all of this has been a huge inspiration for us and we were able to invest in more locations, more sales staff and to further improve our ISOTEC infrastructure in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

2016 was, without any doubt, our year! Thank you to all of you for trusting ISOTEC and accompanying us along the way!

In 2017, we achieved something at ISOTEC that we could only dream of when we founded our company in 1990, namely to carry out our number 100,000 ISOTEC renovation. This number means a lot to us.
And above all it shows us how much our customers trust us, and this gives us the motivation to provide our best protection plan for your home and to show you that choosing ISOTEC was the right decision - not only now, but for decades to come.

Our long-term way of thinking and acting are also reflected in the F&C Gold Award, which we have won now for the sixth consecutive year. This prize, from the International Center for Franchising and Cooperation, is only awarded if the franchise partners are highly satisfied with the franchise system as a whole. This was the case for us again in 2017, which shows the cohesion and high quality awareness at ISOTEC.

In August 2017 ISOTEC GmbH in Kürten was awarded "Great Place to Work" by the independent institute, for being one of the 40 or so companies in North Rhine-Westphalia where over 80% of employees describe the workplace culture as "good and attractive". Great Place to Work came to the conclusion that ISOTEC is one of 60 most "excellent companies" in the whole of Germany.

And in September, the next highlight followed. Our Managing Director Horst Becker received the Rheinisch-Bergisch Entrepreneurs Award "for the impressive development of ISOTEC", as District Administrator Dr. Hermann-Josef Tebroke emphasized at the award ceremony. Equally appreciated was his social commitment, which is reflected in the ISOTEC youth welfare service, which helps and supports young people with their personal development.

All our 2017 successes allowed us to face 2018 with renewed positivity and optimism. Another successful year for ISOTEC!

2018: We at ISOTEC are very proud of our employees. They are highly trained and motivated to always give their best! There are now 800 employees working for us in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Mallorca. And because our employees are so important to us, we honour them every year at our grand employee conference in Kassel (Germany). It gives us great pleasure to see how people are becoming more and more knowledgeable and competent at their jobs.

In 2018 the ISOTEC headquarters were voted best employer in North Rhine-Westphalia for the second year in a row. Our motto is: "Working time is living time" and we truly believe that one can and should enjoy the time spent at work. A good working environment, staff friendliness, high levels of motivation and a general wellbeing: all this is reflected in the prize for best employer in North Rhine-Westphalia, awarded by the independent institution "Great Place to Work".

The trade journal B+B, (Bauen im Bestand), awarded our ISOTEC Cellar Floor Renovation with the Product of the Year award for 2018. With this method you raise the quality of your cellar by applying a special coating that prevents rising damp and means that the basement floor can be used again for storage. The added value that the ISOTEC cellar floor renovation brings was so convincing for the specialist magazine B+B and their professional readership that this product was chosen as Product of the Year 2018.

The years 2019 and 2020 were two significant and very successful years for us at ISOTEC. The ISOTEC Group has now been in existence for 30 years: the starting signal was given in 1990 with Gebrüder Becker GmbH in Bergisch Gladbach.

Since then, the ISOTEC Group has successfully renovated well over 100,000 buildings in Germany, Austria, Spain and Switzerland. At over 150 locations, ISOTEC is there for you in around 85 specialist companies when it comes to the remediation of moisture and mould damage to buildings. The ISOTEC Group now has a total of over 800 employees working to ensure that living space becomes a place of well-being again - and that properties are preserved permanently and safely.

However, life does not only take place within one's own four walls, but also outside. In summer, the balcony is a central place for many owners and residents to feel good about life. That's why, after years of research and development and numerous product tests, we at ISOTEC have launched the ISOTEC balcony renovation. After completion of our work, the balcony is usable again within a short time and professionally sealed. In the meantime, we can offer our customers 12 system solutions for a dry home. In recent years, we have added cellar floor and garage floor renovation to our ISOTEC balcony renovation services. By expanding our waterproofing and coating systems, we can help even better to protect the property and home from moisture damage.

More than 500 experts - scientists and practitioners - from this field work together in the "Wissenschaftlich-Technische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Bauwerkserhaltung und Denkmalpflege" (WTA). They have certified the ISOTEC interior waterproofing system 2020 after a multi-stage procedure - thus giving the product for interior basement waterproofing the "accolade". "After the horizontal barrier with special paraffin and the renovation plaster, ISOTEC has also passed the WTA test with the interior waterproofing system and received the WTA certificate. This underlines our high quality standards," reports Jörg Bogs, Technical Manager at ISOTEC. He continues: "Above all, however, it gives our customers the security of knowing that they will receive problem solutions from us against moisture damage to their house that have been thoroughly and independently examined and have a lasting effect."

Our trades are increasingly in demand with large building units and by property managers because we can offer a specific solution to virtually any damp problem. Accordingly, for this business customer segment, we have implemented needs-based solutions and processes that better meet the individual requirements of large projects. This was consistently expanded further in 2020.

For business and professional customers, the "Architectus" specialist event was held for the first time in 2020 via livestream. The specialist presentations from the fields of refurbishment and law were so well received that we will again offer our ISOTEC Architectus specialist event online.

The ISOTEC reference book "Architectus" has now been published in its 4th edition. It is very popular among experts because it provides well-founded information on the remediation of moisture and mould damage in buildings at a glance. Trades such as the ISOTEC horizontal barrier are explained in their field of application as well as the individual process steps are explained in detail. In the 4th edition, all standards and guidelines have been adapted to the current legal situation. The new ISOTEC balcony renovation trade is also included. This makes the ISOTEC Architectus, also in its 4th edition, the ideal reference book for the professional practitioner as well as for interested laymen.

For the first time in 2019, we placed TV commercials on the n-tv channel to make our approach and our services transparent, which met with a very good response. We also continued to be heard on the radio in 2019 and 2020, perhaps you have also heard or seen our spot?

We achieved another real milestone in September 2019. After months of work behind the scenes, we proudly launched our ISOTEC app online. It serves us for quick internal communication.

It is particularly important to us at ISOTEC that we give young people a chance. In total, almost 40 apprentices will be working in the ISOTEC Group in 2019 and 2020. One indication that we are on the right track was the award of our authorised signatory Uwe Neumann as "Trainer of the Year 2019". Uwe Neumann puts his heart and soul into dealing with the questions and concerns of our young colleagues - and therefore his award is a very nice tribute to him and to the entire ISOTEC Group in its efforts to open up new career prospects for young people.

As we all know, 2020 has turned out very differently for all of us than we expected. Corona is something that has presented us all with challenges. And yet we wanted to and will manage this exceptional situation successfully and well. In doing so, the safety of our customers and employees is permanently in focus.

In the middle of the first lockdown, we as ISOTEC headquarters sent our business partners and employees a "care package" to cheer them up and thank them. It contained a mouth-nose protection, tea, multivitamin effervescent tablets, card games, crayons, colouring sheets for children, sweets and ballpoint pens. The campaign was so well received that we received numerous "thank you videos" from the specialist companies. This confirmed and strengthened our internal motto: "ISOTEC: We are a team!

Corona has accelerated digitalisation - also at ISOTEC. In addition to our online specialist event ISOTEC Architectus Livestream, our ISOTEC Academy 2020 has gone online. This provides our employees with first-class training and excellent education even in times when face-to-face events cannot take place. In addition, we have introduced a data tool in 2020 in order to be able to fulfil your customer requests even better and more precisely. The speed of our website has also been improved. There you will now find more than 19,000 reference objects on ISOTEC refurbishments.

Horst Becker is "impressed by the cohesion and level-headedness of our business partners and employees during the Corona period. Especially in these times, the cultivated values show themselves in a special way. They have accepted the hay challenges in their teams, put their focus on safety and customer service and thus created the basis for high customer satisfaction and business success".

In 2020, we welcomed three new franchise partners to the ISOTEC Group. We warmly welcome Frank Brückner for the Bonn region, Thomas Latacz for Karlsruhe and Olaf Bikker for Bruchsal. Your contact for moisture and mould damage. Welcome to ISOTEC!

At the ISOTEC headquarters in Kürten near Cologne, we also grew in 2020 and were pleased to welcome four new colleagues there. Welcome to ISOTEC!

With a lot of tailwind and also optimism - despite everything - we are going into 2021 and are there for you and your buildings!