Hiro lift

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HIRO LIFT Hillenkötter + Ronsieck GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding October 1, 1897
Seat Bielefeld , Germany
management Thomas Kaiser
Number of employees approx. 320 (2019)
sales approx. 45 million euros
Branch Conveyor technology , mechanical engineering
Website www.hiro.de

The HIRO Lifthill + Ronsieck GmbH is a medium-sized company based in Bielefeld . Hiro Lift manufactures elevator systems for different purposes. The product range today includes stair lifts, inclined wheelchair lifts, wheelchair lifting platforms, vertical platform lifts and passenger lifts. The company is the largest manufacturer of stair lifts in Germany. Sales of escalators and moving walks has been part of the company's field of activity since 2010 . Hiro Lift employs around 320 people (2019) and sells its products worldwide. In Germany, in-house employees are responsible for sales. In international foreign countries, sales and cooperation partners look after customers.

history

Founding years (1897–1900)

On October 1, 1897, the machine manufacturer Friedrich Wilhelm Hillenkötter and the innkeeper Hermann Ronsieck founded the machine factory Hillenkötter & Ronsieck OHG in Bielefeld. The area of ​​activity initially included the construction of transmission systems and the repair of steam engines . Up to 1900 the production of belt pulleys, bearing blocks, shaft couplings and all kinds of lifting gear was added.

The Vogt brothers (1900–1934)

Hermann Ronsieck died in 1898. Wilhelm Hillenkötter sold the company to the brothers Fritz and August Vogt in 1900. Fritz Vogt co-founded the Ravensberger Eisenhütte Reinshagen & Vogt in 1890 and initially concentrated on managing it. August Vogt, engineer in the merchant marine, took over the management at Hillenkötter & Ronsieck. After the change of ownership, the company also manufactured elevator systems, jib and bridge cranes, chamber doors for coking plants and drives for lock systems in addition to the previous products .

With the death of the two Vogt brothers, Fritz Vogt (1854–1912) and August Vogt (1861–1924), the company gradually became the property of the heirs. In 1923 Hillenkötter & Ronsieck had a total of 101 employees (11 employees and 90 workers). After the First World War, production concentrated on elevators and crane systems while maintaining the previous delivery program. In addition, there was the production of charging machines for annealing furnaces and gate drives.

Great Depression and World War II (1929–1945)

The earnings figures of the company fell with the start of the Great Depression from 1929 to 1933 continuously, eventually stagnated from 1933 to 1936 at zero.

In 1934 Eduard Hessinger took over the management of the company. In the 1930s and 1940s, rope-operated freight and passenger lifts and lifts for gasometers were mainly built. In addition, between 1936 and 1943, crane construction achieved significantly higher production figures than in the previous decades. Important customers during this time were, on the one hand, various army construction offices of the Wehrmacht and, on the other hand, the two most important Dortmund mining companies. Eight crane systems were built for Hoesch AG between 1939 and 1942. In the years 1939–1941, nineteen crane systems were delivered to the Dortmund Hörder Hüttenverein .

Hillenkötter & Ronsieck only built chamber doors for coking ovens during the Second World War . Hillenkötter & Ronsieck was involved in the armaments industry with the construction of mounts for cannons and other artillery pieces .

Development after the Second World War (1945–1970)

After the end of the war, a total of 40% of the Bielefeld metal industry's factories were destroyed. Hillenkötter & Ronsieck, however, was spared war damage. In 1946 the company was initially under the trust management of the Bielefeld architect Dr.-Ing. Erika Brödner. In 1948 Eduard Hessinger converted the company into a limited partnership . The number of employees, 100 employees and workers in 1947, rose to 265 by 1959 and remained at this level until the end of the 1960s.

After the Second World War, Hillenkötter & Ronsieck concentrated on the manufacture of elevator systems for hospitals, administration buildings, department stores and industrial companies. In 1953/54 Hillenkötter & Ronsieck resumed exports to other European countries as well as to the American continent and the Near and Middle East. In 1979 Hillenkötter & Ronsieck gave up the crane construction business and concentrated on elevator construction.

At the end of the 1970s, Karstadt and Kaufhof department stores were exclusively equipped with Hillenkötter & Ronsieck passenger elevators. There was a general contract with Kaufhof between 1960 and 1979, according to which every elevator in a Kaufhof branch had to be delivered and serviced by Hillenkötter & Ronsieck. The company had similar business relationships with Karstadt . In total, the company built 138 elevator systems for 49 Kaufhof branches and 282 elevator systems for 67 Karstadt branches.

After Hillenkötter & Ronsieck withdrew from conventional elevator construction, Knizia Strelow and Röbling Seiffert (now both part of the Haushahn Group ) were able to build some elevator systems for Karstadt and Kaufhof department stores.

In addition to the proven traction sheave elevator systems, Hillenkötter & Ronsieck also built hydraulic elevators from the 1950s . In 1963 Hillenkötter & Ronsieck began producing facade lifts that were used for the maintenance and cleaning of facades and windows in high buildings. The company built facade lifts for the 198 m high city hall of Chicago (Civic Center), for the 259 m high First National Bank Building (Chicago) , and in 1968 for the second tallest building in the world (344 m), the John Hancock Center in Chicago, and in the summer of 1971 the first of two facade elevators for the towers of the World Trade Center in New York were delivered.

Hillenkötter & Ronsieck manufactured facade lifts until the mid-1970s, after which they withdrew from this business.

Turbulent years (1970–1981)

On September 1, 1970, Eduard Hessinger left the company and sold his shares to the Ravensberger Eisenhütte Verwaltungsgesellschaft owned by the Claas family (Harsewinkel), which entered the company as a general partner.

In 1976 the Claas family decided to sell the Bielefeld company. After the first attempt to sell the company to Herwig and Rüdiger Lange failed, Christian Hein, entrepreneur from the elevator industry from Hanover, took over the company in April 1977. In mid-1977 the company was renamed Hiro Lift Hillenkötter + Ronsieck GmbH and a changed legal form. Two thirds of the owners were Eldor Türautomatic GmbH and one third were the brothers Christian and Wilfried Hein.

In September 1979 the two managing directors of Hiro Lift, Fischer and Hein, received the order to liquidate Hiro Lift. By transferring the production of automatic doors to Eldor, selling the maintenance contracts for conventional elevators and transferring the assembly staff to Thyssen Elevator GmbH, the Hein brothers succeeded in averting liquidation in connection with considerable job cuts and a social plan. On August 1st, 1980 work at Hiro Lift continued with only 10 employees. From then on, the area of ​​handicapped elevators was the focus at Hiro Lift. Wilfried and Christian Hein became the sole shareholders of Hiro Lift. Wilfried Hein remained managing director. His company share was 51%, that of his brother 49%.

Restructuring (1981-2008)

The specialization in the production of handicapped and stair lifts has ensured the company continuous growth since 1980. In 1984 the company achieved a turnover of 5.5 million DM and in 1985 employed 44 people again.

In the period that followed, sales and employee numbers continued to show a continuous upward trend: In 1989 the company achieved sales of 8 million DM with 64 employees, in 1997 with 93 employees 22.5 million DM, in 2002 with 136 employees 16 million euros and in 2006 with 180 employees 26.5 million euros.

In 1990 Hiro Lift developed the traction drive ( European patent no. 0525141). This technology was initially only used for inclined elevators for the disabled, later the traction drive was also used for vertical elevators. Hiro Lift returned to the business with classic passenger elevators. In 2003, the company developed a machine room-less passenger elevator with the drive in the counterweight, specially designed for use in one and two-family houses.

Technical developments

Hiro Lift developed significant technical innovations in the field of elevator construction, such as B. the collective control for self-propelled elevators, designed as a push button control. In addition, the company developed lockless, self-closing elevator doors, automatic door locking and fine adjustment for smooth, floor-level entry. The most important innovations include the worm-segment drive developed in 1979 and the traction drive developed in 1990.

literature

  • Andreas Beaugrand (ed.): City book Bielefeld, tradition and progress in the East Westphalian metropolis. Westfalen Verlag, Bielefeld 1996, ISBN 3-88918-093-0 .
  • The Hillenkötter & Ronsieck company. Factory for hoists , in: Magistrat der Stadt Bielefeld (ed.), Das Buch der Stadt, Bielefeld 1926 , pp. 382–383
  • Hey, Bernd ua (Ed.): History processes. Historical walks through Bielefeld , Bielefeld 1990/92, ISBN 3-921680-81-6
  • Sauerland, J., The Ravensberger Eisenhütte Reinshagen & Vogt , in: Magistrat der Stadt Bielefeld (Ed.), The Book of the City, Bielefeld 1926 , pp. 374–375
  • Schreiber-Lange, I., Rationalization, Profit and Personnel Policy of the Karstadt, Horten and Neckermann department stores , Düsseldorf 1976
  • Schmitt, J., Development of the elevator industry from goods production to service provider , Frankfurt 1988
  • Reinhard Vogelsang: History of the City of Bielefeld , Volume 2: From the middle of the 19th century to the end of the First World War . Bielefeld 1988, ISBN 978-3-923830-10-7

swell

  • Commercial police files for the Hillenkötter & Ronsieck company, 1897–1904, Bielefeld City Archives, 101.013 / Business St. XIII, serial no. 20th
  • Files of the IHK Bielefeld for the company Hiro Lift Hillenkötter + Ronsieck GmbH
  • The history of an elevator company , undated (approx. 1980), 2 pages, company archive Hiro Lift Hillenkötter + Ronsieck
  • House books Bielefeld Mitte, 1899 to 1972, Bielefeld City Archives, 104.3 / residents' registration office

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Over 110 years of experience: From the founding years to milestones in technical progress. Retrieved February 7, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Homepage of Hiro Lift, company portrait. Retrieved December 8, 2015 .
  3. ^ German Foundation for Health Information - Report on the examination of the stairlift provider HIRO LIFT. (PDF; 176 kB) Retrieved November 25, 2011 .
  4. ↑ FHW Knizia, Essen | Haushahn elevators

Coordinates: 52 ° 1 ′ 53 "  N , 8 ° 31 ′ 45.7"  E