A group of four employees from Serbia for Gauselmann Group subsidiary MERKUR Games d.o.o. climbed to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, in northeast Tanzania, bringing the company’s sun logo along with them on the trip, in an effort to make it shine “over the roof of Africa.”
During a six-day expedition, together with ten other adventurers, the employees climbed the highest mountain on the African continent. By reaching the summit, they were rewarded with a breathtaking view from Uhuru Peak, at 5,898 metres above sea level.
“To experience the sunrise from the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro,” the company describes the goal of the four employees of the Gauselmann brand. The effort consolidated the group’s activities in Serbia, according to a press release.
“It was an incredible battle of wills, with the forces of nature, patience and our own endurance,” said Branko Kokir, Managing Director at MERKUR Games and initiator of the expedition. Climbing for six to eight hours, the team covered ten kilometres on foot and overcame a difference in altitude of 1,000 metres each day.
Day by day, the team pressed onward through different climatic zones: from grasslands, alpine meadows and tropical rainforests, moorlands and desert plateaus, to snow and ice-covered regions. At an altitude of 4,700 metres above sea level, the adventurers set off on the final leg: the ascent to Uhuru Peak.
In the final nighttime push, the team covered 5.8 kilometres in 7.5 hours before reaching the cross on the summit in time for sunrise just before 7 a.m. There, they displayed a flag with the MERKUR sun symbol over Uhuru Peak.
A cameraman documented the expedition with his camera, while also interviewing the 14-member team. The material is now being broadcast in six 30-minute episodes on “Sport Klub“, a leading sports channel in the Balkans.
“The MERKUR sun also features as a faithful companion on the trek,” the company says in a press statement. During the entire journey, the team members wore T-shirts, sew-on badges, caps and carried flags with the logo. Moreover, the local population “was thrilled” to be given T-shirts and footballs with the MERKUR sun as a gift from the Gauselmann Group.
“Climbing Kilimanjaro is a remarkable feat of will. I am immensely proud that our Serbian employees took the MERKUR sun along for the trip and shone it over the roof of Africa,” says company founder and Chairman of the Management Board Paul Gauselmann.
The Gauselmann Group is represented in Serbia by its MERKUR Games d.o.o. subsidiary. The company opened the first gaming arcade there in 2012, under the MERKUR Automat Klub brand.
In 2017, business activities in the Serbian market were systematically expanded through a series of strategic partnerships. With a 50% equity holding respectively in the companies Balkan Bet and MERKUR Xtip, the Gauselmann Group is “optimally positioned” with some 140 land-based venues as well as online in the Serbian Republic.