How has ICON grown?

Everything began in 1975 when five young entrepreneurs launched the ICON-INSTITUT Gesellschaft für angewandte Sozialforschung, Beratung, Planung und Entwicklung mbH in Köln (Cologne). The company's purpose was to provide consulting services in development aid projects and it has remained successful in this ever since.

GET German Education and Training GmbH was the first subsidiary with a specialised profile, since it has worked in the field of education since 1987. In 1996 the establishment of ICON-INSTITUT Gesellschaft für Berufliche Bildung und Training mbH followed in Aachen. Two years later ARCOTRASS, a company from Frankfurt focusing on rural and regional development, joined the ICON group. In early 2001 two departments of the former ICON-INSTITUT GmbH became autonomous: ICON-INSTITUT Public Sector and ICON-INSTITUT Informationssysteme. The remaining part of the organisation now concentrates on Private Sector Development. With these steps the long process of the original company's development has been completed. The result is six competent specialised institutes which together call themselves the ICON-INSTITUTES.

In 2009 the group delivered over 21,650 consulting days with an annual turnover of nearly 22,8 million EUR. We are proud of our steady growth.

Turnover 1975 - 2009