Julius Blum (company)
| Julius Blum GmbH
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1952 |
| Seat | Höchst (Austria) |
| management | Philipp Blum and Martin Blum (Management) , Urs Bolter (Managing Director Blum International Consulting) and Gerhard Humpeler (Head of Finances) |
| Number of employees | 8349 (June 30, 2020) |
| sales | EUR 1,906.92 million (June 30, 2020) |
| Branch | Metal processing |
| Website | www.blum.com |
The Julius Blum GmbH is an international company that specializes in the manufacture and distribution of furniture fittings. The main product groups are flap, hinge and pull-out systems for furniture , primarily in kitchens . The company's headquarters are in Höchst , a municipality in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg .
Company history
Julius Blum from Höchst founded the company on March 1st, 1952 and manufactured hoof studs, a kind of "spike" for horses, as the first product. The trained farrier attached this anti-slip protection to the horse's shoes and made their locomotion safer.
The arrival of tractors in agriculture forced Julius Blum to look for new business fields in the following years. In Switzerland he found a manufacturer of window, door and cabinet fittings, for whose production he had the right machines. Julius Blum received in 1958 the license for the production of single pin hinges for furniture, windows and doors (anuba band). This was also the entry into the furniture fittings industry. The first exports were made in 1965. The first diplomatic missions abroad soon followed.
Blum is still a family-run company today (Herbert Blum 26%, Gerhard E. Blum 26%, Blum Private Foundation 48%).
8,349 employees work for Blum worldwide - 6,180 of them in Vorarlberg. The company has eight plants in Vorarlberg (Austria), production sites in Poland, Brazil and the USA as well as 31 subsidiaries and representative offices worldwide. Deliveries are made to furniture manufacturers and hardware dealers in over 120 countries.
The managing directors Philipp and Martin Blum have been running the company since July 1, 2019, together with Urs Bolter (managing director Blum International Consulting) and Gerhard Humpeler (head of finances).
Anuba furniture belt ( drill-in hinge )
First Blum hinge: pot hinge (1964)
Products
Blum produces flap, hinge and pull-out systems for furniture , mainly in kitchens but also for other living areas. In addition to pure hardware solutions, the company offers electrical and mechanical movement technologies for opening and closing furniture. Blum also has appropriate processing aids in its range for its products.
Blum produced the first furniture fitting with the Anuba band and sold it in Austria. In 1964, with the production of the first Blum hinge, the company began manufacturing concealed furniture hinges , and one year later the company began its first export business outside of Austria. In 1966, Blum introduced roller slide runners for drawers as a further product line in the production program. Blum has had its own apprenticeship training program since 1970 .
In 1977 the first concealed slide system for wooden drawers came onto the market. In 1985, Blum developed the first hinge that could be installed without tools. In 2001 a cushioning system for closing furniture was presented. There have been various flap fittings for the wall cupboard area since 2005. In the same year, Blum launched a mechanical solution for opening handle-free fronts.
In 2006, the Blum range was expanded to include an electric version. A generation of hinges with integrated damping has been available since 2009 and a box system with straight side walls has also been available since 2011.
The fittings manufacturer received the European Inventor Award from the European Patent Office (EPA) in 2013 . Among other things, various products have been awarded the Red Dot Design Award , the German Design Award and the iF Product Design Award .
Blum holds more than 2,100 property rights worldwide, and in 2019 the company was granted 79 patents and utility models by the Austrian Patent Office . This puts the company in second place in Austria in the inventor ranking. Around four percent of Blum's annual turnover goes into research and development, which employs around 100 people.
Locations
Production sites
Julius Blum GmbH produces mainly in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg, where the company also has its administrative headquarters in the Rheindeltagemeinde Höchst. There are currently eight plants in Vorarlberg, of which plants 1 to 3 are in Höchst. Plant 4 is located in Bregenz , Plant 5 in Fußach , Plant 6 in Gaißau and Plant 7 in Dornbirn . In 2018, the first production hall of the new punching center in Dornbirn was completed in Plant 8. In these plants, hinge, flap and pull-out systems are developed and produced for the global market.
Outside of Austria, there is also production in the United States, Poland and Brazil. The US site is in Lowesville , North Carolina . In Brazil, Blum has a plant in Embu in the state of São Paulo . Since 2006, the fittings manufacturer from Höchst has also had a logistics center in Jasin / Swarzędz in Poland.
In December 2017, the company acquired a property in Feldkirch in the “Runa” industrial area. Blum has been active in China with a sales subsidiary since 2002 and in June 2019 a plot of land near the sales office was acquired to set up a production site for the Chinese market.
Plant 1 in Höchst
Plant 2 in Höchst
Plant 3 in Höchst
Plant 4 in Bregenz
Plant 5 in Fußach
Plant 6 in Gaißau
Plant 7 in Dornbirn
Plant in North Carolina, USA
Plant in São Paulo, Brazil
Plant in Swarzędz, Poland
Sales locations
Today Blum has 31 subsidiaries and representative offices worldwide. These are, listed according to the year they were founded:
- 1977: Blum Sweden, Blum USA
- 1978: Blum Canada
- 1981: Blum Germany
- 1987: Blum UK
- 1989: Blum Norway
- 1991: Blum France
- 1992: Blum Poland
- 1993: Blum Czech Republic
- 1994: Blum Hungary
- 1995: Blum Romania
- 1996: Blum Turkey
- 1997: Blum Australia, Blum Russia
- 1998: Blum Brazil
- 2001: Blum South-East Asia
- 2002: Blum China
- 2005: Blum Ukraine
- 2006: Blum Hong Kong
- 2007: Blum Mexico
- 2008: Blum Kazakhstan, Blum Vietnam
- 2009: Blum India
- 2010: Blum New Zealand
- 2011: Blum North Africa, Blum Portugal
- 2012: Blum Greece
- 2016: Blum Azerbaijan, Blum Switzerland
- 2017: Blum Slovakia
- 2018: Blum Indonesia
Apprenticeship training
In 1970 Blum introduced its own apprenticeship training based on the dual training system . This means that the apprentices are trained in the company and at the vocational school in parallel.
The apprenticeships are trained in one of the Vorarlberg plants, depending on the profession. Blum USA has set up its own apprenticeship training based on the Austrian model.
Blum's apprentices regularly take part in international competitions such as the “ WorldSkills ” (professional world championships). The company is currently training apprentices in nine different technical occupations and the training takes 3.5 to 4 years, depending on the occupation.
In September 2019, 104 new apprentices began their training, which means that from now on a total of 384 apprentices are currently being trained at Blum - 22 of them at the American subsidiary Blum USA and 2 at Blum Poland.
Others
In January 2015, Julius Blum GmbH and nine other Vorarlberg companies founded the “Climate Neutrality Alliance 2025” with the aim of making all of their activities 100 percent climate-neutral by 2025. Since January 1, 2018, 100% of the electricity has been obtained from hydropower.
In addition to its own test and inspection regulations, Blum also works with external testing institutes and organizations, such as ISO 9001 , Bureau Veritas , Institut technologique FCBA , Deutsche Gütegemeinschaft Möbel , TÜV Rheinland LGA , American National Standards Institute ANSI and FIRA .
In 1997, Blum introduced an environmental management system. Blum invests in various environmental measures such as photovoltaic systems or heat recovery from production processes. Blum has its own siding at Plant 7. The company uses this to handle most of its shipping activities to the major seaports by rail. Blum has been certified in accordance with the environmental management standard ISO 14001 since 1997 and in energy management in accordance with ISO 50001 since 2012 .
In June 2017, Blum in Vienna was awarded the Austrian export prize, the “Global Player Award”, for the successful internationalization of a company.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c vol.at: www.vol.at/entwicklung-von-blum-bleibt-trotz-corona-krise-stabil/6679428 [1]
- ↑ Hermann Simon mentions Julius Blum GmbH in his book of the same name as an example of a "hidden champion". (Hermann Simon: Hidden Champions of the 21st Century, The Success Strategies of Unknown World Market Leaders. Campus, Frankfurt a. M., 2007, ISBN 978-3-593-38380-4 , p. 22.)
- ↑ Company website: data and facts
- ↑ a b vol.at: Countdown in Blum-Werk 7 (August 5, 2009)
- ↑ a b c company website: Innovations today, standard tomorrow
- ↑ epo.org: Industry: Claus Hämmerle and Klaus Brüstle (May 24, 2013)
- ↑ advantageaustria.org: European Inventor Award 2013 goes to Julius Blum GmbH from Austria ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (June 19, 2013)
- ↑ Record for Austrian patents (July 2, 2020)
- ↑ Company website: production sites
- ↑ Hardware manufacturer Blum buys property from Martin Holz, (June 5, 2018)
- ↑ vol.at: Blum expanded location in Russia (October 24, 2007)
- ↑ vol.at: Fittings manufacturer Blum took over Greek representation (March 26, 2012)
- ↑ Wirtschaftszeit.at: Three Blum apprentices qualified for professional world championship 2009 (December 11, 2008)
- ↑ Wirtschaftszeit.at: Top-level training - teaching in Vorarlberg industry ( memento of the original from December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (23 August 2016)
- ↑ vem.at: 4 Blum apprentices for the WorldSkills 2011 in London (2011)
- ↑ Apprenticeship at Blum (company microsite) (25 January 2020)
- ↑ 104 new apprentices at Blum in Vorarlberg (September 2019)
- ↑ Vorarlberg companies found a climate neutrality alliance (January 9, 2015)
- ↑ Livestream for the Blum financial year press conference 2018/2019 (June 30, 2019)
- ↑ Wirtschaftsblatt (online version): Fittings manufacturer Blum is growing in overseas business ( Memento from February 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (July 12, 2013)
- ↑ orf.at: Resource center with new rail connection (October 9, 2009)
- ↑ "Global Player Award" for Blum (June 28, 2017)
Coordinates: 47 ° 27 '28.9 " N , 9 ° 39' 5.1" E