the term has implications (you’d eventually expect family ownership, a “responsible” company with tradition and values, etc., although I think nobody would be surprised if they hadn’t any values apart from profit). Many of them fit into the manufacturing ecosystem as subcontractors / suppliers for bigger companies, and/or may be producing specialized goods or services.
Here’s a nice graphic from wikipedia about the relation with society, but it is a hundred years old now:
If you want to include small companies, the usual term is “KMU” (kleine und mittlere Unternehmen).
There is also the term “Mittelschicht”, which is about the middle of society, neither poor nor rich, and may not only be read as refering to economic wealth but also intellectual capital/education level (en: middle class, roughly).
