The KERN Group – Your partner for all languages for more than 50 years

Qualified and motivated team members are one of the keys to the KERN Group's success. It is our team members that make a significant contribution to your satisfaction through their work. It is because of their competence, motivation and performance that the KERN Group is able to realise its corporate goals.

Alongside our permanent employees, carefully selected members of staff are also part of the KERN Group’s team, including

• specialist translators, language professionals and proofreaders,
• terminologists and linguists,
• trainers and lecturers,
• interpreters and speakers,
• engineers and technical writers,
• Web specialists and programers as well as
• graphic designers and DTP specialists.

Alongside their training and experience in their respective fields, their additional specialist knowledge of the economy, technology, law, science and finance are used to your advantage. Their knowledge and reliability contributes to the strength of the KERN Group. Your competent, motivated and friendly KERN language team is always on hand to respond to your questions and requests.

In this age of global communication, our vision is to enable foreign language products and services at the highest level of quality possible. For more than fifty years, our independent, family-owned company with sustainable growth has been developing partnerships with customers from a diverse range of sectors: industry, economy, services, public authorities, associations, solicitor’s offices, universities as well as private persons. Our comprehensive and reliable services have given us a reputation which reaches far beyond the borders of Germany.

We offer a highly diversified, innovative service catalogue. To meet the challenges of a changing world, we are constantly working to further develop our services and pursue a healthy, sustainable growth strategy. Our structures are therefore customer-friendly, flexible and forward-looking.

The foundation for this is formed by our company values (mission statement) 

Partnership: We think and act for the benefit of our customers, we listen to them and we offer them comprehensive advice. We are fair, tolerant and friendly. We promote the professional and personal development of our employees and aim to work together with our suppliers on a long-term basis and in a forward-looking manner.

Quality: Our utmost goal is our customers' absolute satisfaction. Using state-of-the-art resources, we work cost-consciously and are guided by the latest in technological progress. In this regard, we are assisted by the continuous improvement of our quality management system.

Sustainable economic success: We aim for a strong market position, in the interests of our customers, suppliers and employees. As an independent, family-owned company, we would like to maintain and develop our own identity.

Our keys to success are

Customer focus: We understand the high demands of the market and aim for long-term customer satisfaction. We gain our customers' trust through competence, flexibility, reliability, quality and our service-focussed approach. We seek dialogue with our customers and take their suggestions into account, so that we can constantly improve our processes. We aim to fulfil the wishes and quality requirements of our customers in a target- and benefit-oriented manner. As a long-term partner to our customers, we want to be the best and to do all we can to ensure their success. Our customers’ success is also our success.

Customers of the KERN Group include:

• large companies from industry and business
• small and medium-sized businesses
• institutions and the public sector
• private customers/end users of all nationalities

Our employees: Our employees contribute significantly to our success through their skills, motivation and performance. They demonstrate personal initiative, courage and adaptability every day.

Innovation: We are constantly refining our processes and resources. Together with our customers, we develop innovative concepts that help them reach their goals. We strive to constantly refine our processes in order to meet the growing challenges and trends of the market. Together with our customers and technology partners, we develop innovative concepts and processes that support our customers in reaching their company’s goals.

Reliability: We make clear decisions, stick to our word and deliver what we promise our customers. In a rapidly changing environment, this provides a reliable constant, resulting in long-lasting successful customer relationships and partnerships.

With commitment, inventiveness and the professional effort of all of our employees, we have the opportunity to establish KERN Global Language Services as a market leader in global language management.

The protection of all data and information is our goal as well, as set forth in our ISMS guidelines 

Confidentiality: Confidential data and information may only be accessed by authorised persons and in a permissible manner, and unauthorised disclosure must be prevented.

Integrity: The integrity of data and information and the correct functioning of (IT) systems must be ensured in order to fulfil the regulatory and statutory requirements and obligations arising from contracts with employees, customers and cooperation partners, and to guarantee the reliability of information processing.

Availability of data and information is given provided that they can always be used as intended.

For more than 50 years, KERN has been working together with its customers from all industries to face the challenges of internationalisation. While the focus of business activity in the early 70s was still on foreign language print products and translations, KERN nowadays offers a full service range in translation, interpreting, language training, terminology and translation memory management, software and website localisation, as well as multilingual desktop publishing and consulting and training in these areas.

• 1969

  Founding of KERN GmbH by Manfred and Birte R. Kern. Headquarters in Frankfurt am Main. Focus of the business activities: foreign language marketing and print materials, translating and interpreting.

• 1980

  Opening of the first branch in Düsseldorf. Expansion of services to the leasing of interpreting equipment as well as foreign language instruction. Today, the KERN Group is active in over 45 locations around Germany.

• 1983

  Founding of the first international subsidiary in Paris (KERN SARL, Traduction et Interprétation). Further subsidiaries in New York, London, Lyon, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Salzburg and Vienna.

• 1985

  The KERN & Partner Werbeagentur GmbH assumes responsibility for the development of foreign language advertising materials as well as multilingual desktop publishing.

• 1997

  Renaming of KERN GmbH to KERN AG, Sprachendienste (KERN Global Language Services). First use of translation and terminology management tools, now server-bound installations of Across and SDL.

• 2005

  Founding of KERN AG IKL Business Language Training & Co. KG through the integration of IKL Business Language Training GmbH (today KERN AG Training). Consolidation of all Frankfurt offices and classroom facilities at current headquarters at Kurfürstenstraße 1 in Frankfurt am Main.

• 2008

  The self-developed, customer-specific translation and terminology management portals clicktranslate™ and term4client™ are established.

• 2009

  Certification of the KERN IKL Business Language Training through the Technical Control Board in Hesse (TÜV Hessen), accreditation and admission regulation - promotion of work, as an accredited educational institution in accordance with German Social Code Book III (SGB III). The language test "lingoscore”™ is developed for personnel development in companies.

• 2010

  The customer-specific, browser-based translation management portal "portal4client”™ is launched.

• 2012
  Founding of KERN Austria GmbH with its head office in Vienna.

• 2014
  Range of services increased with the addition of the area of technical documentation.
  Founding of KERN Polska s.p. z.o.o. with its head office in Warsaw.

• 2016
  Expansion of foreign language teaching in Austria due to the integration of Institut CEF into KERN Austria GmbH.

• 2017
  Founding of KERN Services GmbH.

• 2018
  Acquisition of translingua KG in Austria and integration into KERN Austria GmbH.
  Development of the interface API4client™.

• 2019
  Development of the company’s own machine translation software MT4client™.

• 2020
  Further development of the AI solutions.