Konrad Hornschuch AG
| Konrad Hornschuch AG
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|---|---|
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| legal form | AG |
| founding | 1905 |
| Seat | Weissbach , Germany |
| management | Dirk Leiss |
| Number of employees | approx. 1399 (December 31, 2015) |
| sales | > € 305 million (2015) |
| Website | www.hornschuch.com |
The Konrad Hornschuch AG with headquarters in Weissbach , Baden-Wuerttemberg , produces films and artificial leather .
Company profile
Hornschuch produces and markets design and functional films for end users under the dc-fix brand in the interior design business . Under the industrial brand skai , the company sells foils and coated carrier materials for the furniture, automotive, textile and construction industries. In addition to the five European sales companies, the group includes two production companies: O'Sullivan Films, Inc. in Winchester (Virginia , USA) and kek-Kaschierungen GmbH in Herbolzheim. With its five sales companies, the group operates in the European centers of Paris, Milan, Prague, Moscow and London, which are important for the industry. There are also agencies in over 80 countries worldwide.
history
The company was founded by Konrad Hornschuch (1864–1943) in 1905 in Urbach . Hornschuch came from a family of manufacturers; his father Heinrich Hornschuch (1838–1912) had already expanded the textile company Weber & Ott in Fürth into an important large company. The son had been married to Luise Mathilde Leuze (1866–1951), daughter of the Württemberg industrialist Christoph Adolf Leuze , since 1887 . He was initially a partner in his father's company, but left the company in 1905 when it was converted into a family stock corporation and founded his own company in Urbach with the help of the Leuze family. In 1920 Konrad Hornschuch also joined the Weißbach textile company as a partner.
Production in Urbach began in 1906 as a cotton - spinning , mostly with English spinning machines. In the same year a weaving mill was added, and in 1908 a dye works as well . During the First World War , production was on Papiergarn changed, also be gained orders for coloring Drillichgarn . After the First World War they returned to the production and processing of cotton yarn. In addition, were strip Satin and easy shirting fabrics made. In 1922 the dye works was modernized. Towards the end of the 1920s, the focus of production was on bed linen, underwear and table linen. In the 1930s, in the meantime an own sewing shop had been added, the production of cellulose tissue gradually gained acceptance . For further processing in Weißbach, calico , Renforcé and tubular fabrics were also produced. During the Second World War , production was adapted to the changed economic conditions. a. luxury items like damask were no longer produced. The factories survived the war without major damage. However, production came to a standstill in the spring of 1945 due to a lack of coal and after the invasion of the Americans. The cotton required for production could only be regularly procured again in the course of 1946; a lack of electricity and coal led to major production losses in 1947.
The factory in Weißbach was founded in 1891 on the site of a burnt down grinding mill as the Schaufler & Wundt textile factory and converted into a GmbH in 1898. In Weissbach, calico , artificial linen and artificial insoles were initially produced. Operations came to a standstill in 1917 as a result of the First World War, but production resumed in 1919 and grew rapidly from 1924 onwards due to the connection to the railway network. After being incorporated into the newly founded Konrad Hornschuch AG in 1927, artificial leather became another important product in Weißbach. The plastics and early types of artificial leather developed in our own laboratories were used for book covers, raincoats, tablecloths, bags, furniture, and upholstery for automobiles and buses. The Second World War severely restricted production in Weißbach, as part of the workforce was obliged to manufacture engines for the NSU works in Neckarsulm . The buildings and facilities in Weißbach were severely damaged by fighting shortly before the end of the war, and after the end of the war, some of the special machines still in existence were stolen or confiscated. After an interruption of almost a year, limited production started again in November 1945, and further reconstruction dragged on over the following years.
After the founder's death in 1943, his son Willy Hornschuch (1889–1962) took over the management of the company and expanded it significantly after the currency reform in 1948: the buildings and machines were comprehensively modernized, production processes rationalized and the product range expanded. From 1958, the self-adhesive dc-fix decorative film and the artificial leather skai were established as brands. Within a few years, dc-fix became the generic term for such films. In 1973, Skai was included in the dictionary as a synonym for artificial leather. The material found in the automotive industry a. a. for upholstery, door and side coverings as well as deep-drawn foils for dashboards. Fashion designers like Gucci used the material for their handbags and other accessories. With the start of the do-it-yourself wave, the dc-fix short roll came into retail in the early 1970s.
Like his father, Willy Hornschuch was honored many times for his entrepreneurial achievements, including a. with the honorary citizenship of several municipalities, with the honorary senator title of the University of Tübingen and with the Great Federal Cross of Merit . After Willy Hornschuch's death in 1962, his son-in-law Hermann Widenmeyer (1912–1976), who had headed the plant in Weißbach since 1946, took over the management of the company. After his death, ownership changed several times, and in 1983 the company went public .
A major fire at the Weißbach plant in 1968 destroyed a large part of the production department there. As a result, Hornschuch invested more than 50 million D-Marks in new production technology and in a research and development center with a usable area of 8,000 square meters. In 1976 the headquarters were relocated from Urbach to Weißbach, and at the end of 1989 the plant in Urbach was closed.
In the 1980s, Hornschuch concentrated technologically on the process of deep-drawing embossing and optimized the production processes for artificial leather and foils that were converted to it into the following decade. The development of a new four-color printing process and the use of special engraving techniques made it possible to better reproduce original artwork on the materials. From then on, the university program also had more than 100 colors.
In the 1990s, Hornschuch returned as a supplier to the automotive industry with new types of low-fogging synthetic fibers based on polyurethane .
In 2001 the Dutch holding company Halder and the management took over the majority of the company as part of a management buyout. Since then, Hornschuch has concentrated on the two umbrella brands skai and dc-fix. Design and functional films, stain-proof table coverings as well as floor and wall coverings are manufactured and marketed under the name dc-fix, and decorative laminating films, functional films and high-quality artificial leather for the furniture, automotive, textile and construction industries are manufactured and marketed under the skai brand. Furniture foils were the segment with the highest sales in the years around 2000.
In 2006, the management acquired the majority of the group of companies in the course of a management buyout with the participation of the equity divisions of a Stuttgart and a Frankfurt bank. In 2009 the company suffered a temporary decline in sales due to the economic crisis, but was able to expand its international presence in 2010 with the takeover of O'Sullivan Films, Inc. The company has recently received several awards, for example the world market leader swing arm for inclusion in the 2010 lexicon of world market leaders and the iF material awards.
Ownership in chronological order
- After Hermann Widenmeyer's death in 1976, ownership changed several times until the company Kunz GmbH & Co., Gschwend / Württemberg, obtained a majority stake in Konrad Hornschuch AG in 1983.
- 1983 Konrad Hornschuch AG and its majority shareholder Kunz GmbH & Co. go public.
- 1997 Decora Industries Inc. takes over a majority stake in Konrad Hornschuch AG.
- In 2001 the Dutch holding company Halder and the management take over the majority of the company (management buy-out).
- Konrad Hornschuch AG has been a partner in IHKW Industrieheizkraftwerk Weißbach GmbH since 2002, in equal shares with three other partners.
- In 2005 and 2006 a French subsidiary and a sales office in Russia were established.
- In 2006 Halder sold his shares in DZ Equity Partner GmbH (subsidiary of DZ-Bank) and L-EA Mittelstandsfonds of L-Bank, at the same time the management and other executives of Konrad Hornschuch AG increased their stake via a management buy-out 50.05% of the shares.
- Since 2008, the private equity firm Barclays Private Equity (now Equistone Partners Europe ) has held 80% of the company's shares (management and executives together hold 20%).
- In 2009, Hornschuch took over 75% of the shares in kek-Kaschierungen GmbH, Herbolzheim, through an intermediate holding company.
- In 2010 a HornschuchGroup company took over O´Sullivan Films, Inc., USA.
- In September 2016, Continental AG announced that it would take over Hornschuch from Equistone Partners Europe and thereby strengthen its own Benecke-Kaliko brand . The transaction was completed in spring 2017.
Umbrella brands
dc-fix
The company produces and supplies self-adhesive design and functional films as well as decorative wall, floor and table coverings under the dc-fix brand. This business field, called home decoration , is divided into six product segments:
- deco: Decorative adhesive films for individual living ideas and designs
- glass: tint films, sun protection films, energy saving films, decorative window films, etc.
- table: flexible, washable table coverings
- floor: floor tile designs
- wall: wall coverings and wall surfaces
- spirit: trendy wall stickers for walls, doors etc.
skai
Under the industrial brand skai , the company sells foils, foam foils and coated carrier materials for the furniture, automotive, textile and construction industries. The brand is divided into four business areas:
- furniture: Furniture foils for kitchen and bathroom furniture fronts as well as decorative interior fittings (including realistic wood decors)
- fashion: high-tech upholstery materials (including the use of nanotechnology )
- traffic: special synthetics for all vehicle interiors in cars and commercial vehicles
- covertech: window, door and facade profile films
literature
- Hermann Strole: We live and weave in it - 50 years of Konrad Hornschuch: The landscape, the gender, the factory, the anniversary , Urbach 1956
Individual references and other sources
- ↑ a b c facts. Hornschuch, accessed on December 3, 2018 .
- ↑ Florian Langenscheidt , Bernd Venohr (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German world market leaders. The premier class of German companies in words and pictures . Page 285. German Standards Editions, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-86936-221-2 .
- ↑ Weißbach volunteer fire brigade: Hornschuchgroßbrand
- ↑ Hornschuch takes over O'Sullivan Films ( Memento from September 22, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). www.moebelmarkt.de of March 23, 2010, accessed on September 2, 2011
- ↑ Ilka Kopplin, Eyk Henning and Matthias Goldschmidt: Continental takes over surface specialist Hornschuch. Finanz.net , October 15, 2016, accessed October 17, 2016 .
- ↑ Continental receives approval from the antitrust authorities. Hornschuch, March 1, 2017, accessed December 3, 2018 .
- Annual reports of the KHAG 1983 and 2002–2010
- Anniversary brochure 50 years dc-fix® and skai® brands for trends
- Archive of Konrad Hornschuch AG