Press Release | Gütersloh, 02/19/2025

FY 2024: Bertelsmann Invests €76 Million At Its Home Base In Gütersloh

• Investments up by €6 million year-on-year
• Largest private employer in the Gütersloh area with 10,000 employees
• Donations totaling €250,000 in 2024
• 200+ organizations, associations and projects supported
• More steep investments planned for current financial year 2025
• Thomas Rabe: “Gütersloh is and will remain Bertelsmann’s home.”

Gütersloh, February 19, 2025 – In the past financial year 2024, Bertelsmann invested roughly €76 million in its Gütersloh-based divisions, an increase of €6 million compared to the previous year (2023: €70 million). The funds flowed primarily into the business of the IT subsidiary Arvato Systems and the logistics services business of the Arvato Group. The high level of investment at the international media, services and education company’s home base is to be maintained in the current 2025 financial year.

Bertelsmann Chairman & CEO Thomas Rabe says: “Though we generated the largest share of our revenues in the U.S. for the first time in 2024, Gütersloh is and will remain Bertelsmann’s home. We have some 10,000 employees in the region, meaning more people work for Bertelsmann here than at any other of our locations worldwide. That is why we will continue to invest in the greater Gütersloh area and make our social and cultural contribution.”

The number of employees at the Group’s home base has remained constant for many years at around 10,000. Bertelsmann thus remains the largest private employer in the region. In August 2024, 107 new apprentices and dual students began their training at Bertelsmann companies in the region, the same number as in the previous year (2023: 107). All graduates in 2024 received a job offer within the Group. 

Bertelsmann donated around €250,000 to more than 200 organizations, associations, and projects in the greater Gütersloh area in 2024 (2023: €250,000). Beyond this, donations in kind were also made, including more than 6,000 books. At Christmas, the Group donated €25,000 to the Bielefeld palliative care initiative “The Way Home” for the 18th consecutive year; Bertelsmann has supported the initiative with around €475,000 since 2006. Other highlights in the 2024 event year included the opening of the permanent exhibition “Bertelsmann is all this and more” by world-renowned Photographer Jim Rakete at the Gütersloh Corporate Center, and the well-known “Blue Sofa Gütersloh” cultural events featuring forest ranger Peter Wohlleben and author Melanie Raabe at Theater Gütersloh. 

Numerous events are already planned for 2025. A Bertelsmann Forum with NRW Minister President Hendrik Wüst will take place on April 9. And on June 3 and 4, Bertelsmann will once again host a Group-wide management meeting at Theater Gütersloh. Around 500 top international managers from across the Group will come to Gütersloh for the event. The Bertelsmann Party takes place in Berlin on September 11, and the long-established pensioners’ party in Gütersloh’s Stadthalle on December 1. As part of the city’s anniversary celebrations, Bertelsmann will bring the exhibition “Opera Meets New Media – Puccini, Ricordi and the Rise of the Modern Entertainment Industry” to Theater Gütersloh from October 29, 2025 to January 4, 2026. The exhibition has previously been on view at the Bertelsmann representative Office ‘Unter den Linden’ in Berlin and at La Scala in Milan, among other venues. The “Blue Sofa” will also make a guest appearance in Gütersloh again, with further details to be announced in due course.

About Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann is a media, services, and education company with more than 80,000 employees that operates in about 50 countries around the world. It includes the entertainment group RTL Group, the trade book publisher Penguin Random House, the music company BMG, the service provider Arvato Group, Bertelsmann Marketing Services, the Bertelsmann Education Group and Bertelsmann Investments, an international network of funds. The company generated revenues of €20.2 billion in the 2023 financial year. Bertelsmann stands for creativity and entrepreneurship. This combination promotes first-class media content and innovative service solutions that inspire customers around the world. Bertelsmann aspires to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.