Warmth where it‘s needed most.

Warmth is generated in many ways – through light and energy, but also through community and compassion. This year at Gira, we are using light to bring the gift of warmth: through the new Gira solar park, which began production this summer and will supply around 10 million kilowatt hours of climate-friendly solar power every year, and with all kinds of campaigns that make an impact right where warmth is needed most. For us, warmth does not just mean clean energy. Warmth also comes from humanity, responsibility and cohesion, which together bring successful cooperation. This is what we stand for throughout our company, alongside not only our employees but also our market partners, our suppliers and our neighbours at our site in Radevormwald. After all, in these troubled times, it is vital that we have a strong, diverse community that is able to tackle the major challenges of the future with confidence.

This has also inspired another gifting project that has long since become an established tradition at Gira during advent: the Gira Christmas miracle. Every year since 2016, our company trainees have brought a little joy to people from our immediate neighbourhood who are unable to spend Christmas with their family and loved ones. They gathered slips of paper from four local retirement and children’s homes, on which the residents had noted down small wishes. With the help of many of our colleagues, they are making those wishes come true this year, too: shortly before the holidays, our trainees will again deliver more than 230 colourfully wrapped parcels. “It is always an emotional moment when we hand over the presents and then look into their beaming faces,” says Finn Wittenberg from the “Azubi” project team. “Then everyone—both the recipients and the givers—feels a warm glow in their heart”.

Once a week, the Radevormwald Mittagstisch, the food bank local to our company site, will provide a hot lunch for its customers. On six dates in the run-up to Christmas, a total of twelve employees from our company supported the volunteers working at this charitable organisation. Gira recorded the five-and-a-half-hour shifts, during which, among other things, they served food, set up and cleared tables or sorted food for storage, as working hours. Our Managing Director Sebastian Marz was also there to give a helping hand. “This year, we didn't just want to provide financial support for the Radevormwald Mittagstisch, but we wanted to give our employees the chance to help out there in a very practical way,” says Sebastian. “The fact that the ‘shifts’ were taken in no time shows how important it is for our colleagues to get involved in social projects”. Gira will therefore continue to increase opportunities for social engagement in 2026, in order to encourage greater togetherness and create a warm atmosphere at our company.

Warm desserts are a particular treat when it‘s freezing outside. This thought occurred to our Gira Bistro team, who have announced that they will hold a "Waffle Week" for our employees at the start of December. Customers can enjoy freshly baked waffles topped with icing sugar or hot cherries. If you want to take something sweet home with you, then bistro chef Christian Strombach and his kitchen crew have three flavours of home-made jam as well as delicious pastries on offer. The sales proceeds—generously supplemented by Gira—will go to the charitable initiative Lichtblicke.

The annual Gira Christmas donation is also an example of how our social responsibility extends beyond the factory gates. We aim to support a wide range of local, national and international charitable initiatives and organisations and thus express our most heartfelt gratitude for their valuable work in our community. This year, these include four food banks in the Bergisches Land region, the Lichtblicke initiative in North Rhine-Westphalia, Doctors Without Borders and Escuelas Cuidadas.