Festo

Festo SE & Co. KG
legal form	Limited partnership
founding	1925
Seat	Esslingen am Neckar , Germany
management	Oliver Jung (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Executive Officer Corporate Management and Strategy, Chief Operating Officer); Frank Notz (Head of Human Resources); Gerhard Borho (Head of Finance, Information Management and Technology); Ansgar Kriwet (Sales Director); Frank Melzer (Board Member Product and Technology Management);
Number of employees	around 20,100 in 61 countries worldwide (2018)
sales	3.1 billion euros (2018)
Branch	Automation technology
Website	www.festo.com

The Festo SE & Co. KG is a corporate group of control and automation technology with headquarters in Esslingen . It owns the Festo Didactic subsidiary in Denkendorf (Württemberg) .

Key figures

Festo in Esslingen

Gripper arm

Control arm

Control with the help of brain waves

Play media file

Kangaroo at the Hannover Messe 2014

The Festo Group employs around 20,100 people worldwide and achieved Group-wide sales of 3.1 billion euros in 2018 . In addition to Esslingen am Neckar , St. Ingbert and Wiebelskirchen are other locations in Germany. There are independent sales and production companies in 61 countries and around 250 branches worldwide. More than 7% of sales are invested in research and development, for example in the areas of energy efficiency and Industry 4.0 . Friedrich Eichiner chairs the supervisory board.

Group of companies

Festo SE & Co. KG
Festo Distribution GmbH & Co.KG
Festo Didactic SE
Festo Learning Center Saar GmbH
Festo Microtechnology AG (Switzerland)
Festo Polymer GmbH
Festo Chemical Valve Technology GmbH
Eichenberger Thread AG + Eichenberger Motion AG
Resolto Informatik GmbH

history

Festo was founded in Esslingen in 1925 by Gottlieb Stoll. Name givers were the two founders Albert Fe zer and Gottlieb Sto ll, whereby Fezer left in 1929. In the first few decades, Festo produced machines for woodworking such as milling, drilling and grinding machines. The woodworking tools division has not been part of the group since 2000 and has operated under the name of TTS Tooltechnic Systems under the Festool brand, among other things .

Today Festo has its own companies in 61 countries.

Festo automation technology

In the 1950s the company expanded its range of activities. Kurt Stoll - Gottlieb Stoll's eldest son - recognized the potential of using compressed air for drive and control in industrial applications. In 1956, Festo presented a complete program for mechanical engineering for the first time , thus laying the foundation for the new automation technology business area. The use of compressed air formed a basis for modern automation technology.

In the same year, Festo founded its first foreign companies. These were then expanded with the establishment of large production plants in the 1960s. Festo-USA developed as the most important foreign company, which was expanded to Canada and Mexico by the German-American Horst Saalbach during his long presidency.

In December 2015, Festo took over the Swiss Eichenberger Group (Eichenberger Thread AG and Eichenberger Motion AG), among other things to expand its expertise in the field of electromechanical drives. In April 2018, Resolto Informatik GmbH was acquired and with it the first major investment in artificial intelligence for industrial applications .

Festo Didactic

In 1965 the business field of teaching materials and seminars was established. In 1976, the Didactic service area was named Festo Didactic and a collaboration with the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BiBB) in Berlin began. Together with the BiBB, Festo Didactic developed training aids for vocational training in Germany. In 1998 consulting activities with a focus on TPM and lean manufacturing were started.

research

Festo supports the Bionic Learning Network . The company invests, among other things, in technical basic research projects. The SmartBird simulates the flight of a bird and the BionicOpter the flight of a dragonfly. The flying jellyfish Air Jelly consists of a helium- filled ballonet and is the first indoor flight object with peristaltic propulsion. Air Jelly received the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2010 . Other projects that copy animal locomotion into machine locomotion include: B. AirPenguin , Aquapenguin , AquaJelly , AirRay , AquaRay and Airacuda .

In the field of so-called Future Concepts, the company has been dealing with the potential of superconductivity in automation since 2013 .

Festo education fund

The Festo Education Fund supports students in the field of MINT subjects . In addition to financial grants, the support includes the opportunity to acquire career-relevant competencies (soft skills) through various qualification measures and to establish practical contacts at an early stage with the help of the network. The Festo Education Fund is an initiative founded in June 2007 by the company's shareholders. In cooperation with CareerConcept, Festo implemented the concept of the company's first in-house education fund as part of its self-defined corporate educational responsibility.

Movie

Learning from nature - the automation engineers from Festo in Esslingen. Documentary film, Germany, 2015, 29:45 min., Script and director: Thomas Hoeth , production: SWR , series: made in Südwest, first broadcast: February 4, 2015 on SWR, synopsis by ARD .