OPHARDT honoured as Brand of the Century

OPHARDT has been awarded the prestigious German Standards: Brand of the Century award. With this award, our brand has been recognized as a standard-bearer in our industry that stands as a synonym for the sanitizer dispensers product category.

OPHARDT’s success story began with the ingo-man® in the 1960s. At the time, alcohol-based hand santizers were growing rapidly in popularity – especially in the healthcare sector. Its introduction brought about a sea-of-change in the world of hand hygiene and hand sanitization quickly became the gold standard.

But the sanitization boom at the time brought with it a serious problem. Existing hand hygiene dispensers were not designed for the new products. Specifically, the seals could barely withstand the alcohol-based product. As a result, sanitizer often ended up leaking onto the floors of the hospitals instead of being dispensed into the hands of doctors, nurses, and caregivers. This waste of sanitizer therefore did not promote infection prevention.

Hermann Ophardt took on this problem and, after intensive development work, introduced the first ingo-man® dispenser in 1967. The key elements were: the efficient pump technology, the hygienic operating lever with a small contact area, and the “bottom-up” dispensing, which was revolutionary at the time. A short time later, Ophardt created a solution to the problem of the increasing variety of sanitizer bottle shapes with the development of the Euro-bottle standard – together with Professor Daschner from Freiburg University Hospital. The variety of bottle types arose after more and more disinfectant manufacturers began entering the market and offering their products in their own bottles that only fit into their own dispensing systems.

The uniform Euro bottle format eliminated this problem, and its quick-adoption was helped by its compatibility with all ingo-man® dispensers.

OPHARDT: Always ahead

Over time, the OPHARDT portfolio grew to include product lines like the SanTRAL® series, the Neptune™ series, and KX cartridge systems. Today, OPHARDT is known for functionality, innovation and digitalization. Sanitizer dispensers with reliable touch-free operation, eye-catching design, and robust mounting solutions for use at point-of-care, ensure better hand hygiene in all kinds of areas. Each are important milestones in the development history of this family-run company.

“A Brand of the Century is a brand that manages to define an entire genre of products or services.”

Dr. Florian Langenscheidt, publisher of the “Brand of the Century”

Through our pioneering work in the field of smart dispenser systems, OPHARDT is still setting standards in hand hygiene and infection prevention. Smart hygiene dispensers record important consumption and usage data, which can help optimize hand hygiene behavior and dispenser infrastructure. Kanary has established a way forward for the industry.

THE disinfectant dispenser

In receiving the German Standards: Brands of the Century award, OPHARDT represents the entire category of sanitizer dispensers as a standard-bearer for hand hygiene. As part of the comprehensive process, the OPHARDT brand went through three evaluations and convinced a prestigious jury.

OPHARDT joins established German groups and brands such as adidas, DIXI® and Tempo®. Dr. Florian Langenscheidt, publisher of the “Brand of the Century,” underlines the significance of the award: “A Brand of the Century is a brand that manages to define an entire genre of products or services.”

The official award ceremony and public announcement of all the honorees will take place at the beginning of November 2021 as part of the book publication German Standards: Brands of the Century 2022.