At the beginning of February, the two SWG Management Board members, Manfred Siekmann and Reinhard Paul, finalised the purchase of the Hammermühle power plant in Selters, Rhineland-Palatinate. Under the notarial supervision of Dr Klaus Krämer, SWG and one of the previous shareholders, Paul W. Schneider, signed the purchase agreements. Elektrizitätswerk Hammermühle - founded in 1901 - sells a total of 37 million kilowatt hours per year, 11 million of which go to the town of Selters and the municipality of Maxsein and 26 million to business customers outside the grid area. Mr Schneider expressed his relief that he was able to hand over the family business into the reliable and efficient hands of SWG. According to Schneider, it was important to the shareholders that the buyer would be a solid company with a long tradition in the sector. Both SWG board members assured Schneider that they wanted to continue the E-Werk in his spirit. The first sign of this would be to take on the staff at the current location. When asked about the reasons for the purchase, Siekmann replied that his colleague Paul and he had anchored the topic of growth in SWG's corporate goals two years ago. The purchase of this electricity supplier was a further step for the growing SWG Group. Schneider's intentions of expanding business customers outside the grid area were also to be continued in order to keep Hammermühle on its current successful course. For this reason, Harald Schott, head of the SWG business customer sales department, will be the future managing director of Elektrizitätswerk Hammermühle Versorgungs-GmbH, which is yet to be founded. Frank Hoffmann, authorised signatory and head of SWG's electricity supply networks, will be responsible for Hammermühle's electricity networks and thus the entire technical equipment.