On May 29, when the first ball will be played at the LIEBHERR 2017 World Table Tennis Championships in Düsseldorf, the main sponsors will also play a great role in the success of the event. This year the title sponsor is again the family entreprise Liebherr which has been an essential and reliable partner of German table tennis for more than two decades.

lready at the beginning of the nineties the corporate group which was founded in 1949 started sponsoring. The occasion was the promotion of TTF Ochsenhausen to the first German Bundesliga. The club is located in the immediate vicinity of the company that produces fridge and freezer devices. In the following years the company extended its engagement in table tennis continuously. Nowadays, Liebherr is a steady title sponsor of big events such as World and European Championships or Final Four events as well as the table tennis Bundesliga (TTBL). Since 2005 Liebherr has been partner and sponsor of the German Table Tennis Federation (DTTB) and since 2010 of the Austrian Table Tennis Association (ÖTTV) as well.

In public Liebherr is primarily known for the production of refrigerators and construction machines. But in fact, the corporate group operates in many other challenging areas: from aeronautical and traffic engineering to the extractive industry to hotels. There are more than 42,000 employees in over 130 companies spread over all continents. In 2016, together they generated about 9 billion Euro sales.

Liebherr and table tennis are connected by far more than the manufacturing base in Ochsenhausen. It is the sport's philosophy with its dynamic and strategic intelligence that perfectly matches the business culture of the corporate group. "Table tennis is a likeable and healthy sport for all ages - with no scandals nor doping, but rather the epitome of fairness", emphasizes Andreas Böhm, member of the board of directors of Liebherr International AG. He confirms the significance of table tennis to the entreprise Liebherr: "In many of our companies there are enthusiastic table tennis players who pick up the bat during their breaks."

For organizers such an engagement like that of the title sponsor is essential: "We are happy that together with the ITTF we could acquire our long-time and reliable partner Liebherr for the WTTC", emphasizes Michael Geiger, President of the German Table Tennis Federation. Liebherr is a worldwide active and innovate entreprise with which table tennis was recently presented to a broad reach in one of the biggest mining trucks of the world at the BAUMA fair in Munich. This year's WTTC will offer great opportunities for both partners to perfectly present themselves.