Leitz (tools)

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Leitz GmbH administrations

logo
legal form GmbH & Co. KG
founding 1876
Seat Oberkochen , Germany
management Jürgen Köppel (speaker), Robert Lukassen, Georg Hanrath, Michael Voss
Number of employees 2,847
sales EUR 242.31 million
Branch mechanical engineering
Website www.leitz.org
As of December 31, 2017

The Leitz Group is one of the world's most important manufacturers of precision tools for professional wood and plastic processing . Its headquarters are in Oberkochen , Baden-Württemberg . The company currently employs 2,800 people and generated sales of 240 million euros in the 2017 financial year.

Corporate structure

The Leitz headquarters in Oberkochen

The heart of the Leitz Group is Leitz GmbH & Co. KG. The Group's parent company, which was founded in 1876, now includes 37 sales companies, 6 production sites and a network of around 140 service stations worldwide.

Leitz and Boehlerit GmbH & Co. KG in Kapfenberg , Austria , as well as Bilz GmbH & Co. KG, Ostfildern , Baden-Württemberg , together form the Leitz group of companies. Boehlerit produces carbide and diamond cutting materials as well as special tools for metal processing. Bilz produces thermal clamping systems for high-speed machining in metal, wood and plastics processing.

Products and services

The Leitz Group's range of products includes the entire range of machine-driven precision tools for machining solid wood, wood-based products and plastics. Customers include industrial companies and craft businesses in the wood and plastic processing sector.

In addition, Leitz acts as a consultancy and service provider.

The corporate development

From the foundation to the generation change

The company founder Albert Leitz (1854–1916)

In 1876 master craftsman Albert Leitz laid the foundation stone for today's Leitz GmbH & Co. KG with his workshop for hand drills, planer knives and axes in Oberkochen. From these beginnings, the Württembergische Holzbohrer-Fabrik A. Leitz emerged in 1884, which developed machine-driven tools as a second product line at the turn of the century.

The second generation

In 1912 the second generation at the top of the company followed. After the First World War, Albert and Fritz Leitz took advantage of the economic opportunities offered by exports, thereby cushioning the effects of inflation. In 1921, businessman Emil Leitz founded his own sales company, Fritz Leitz founded his own company in 1938 to produce parts, assemblies and assemblies for aircraft. Albert Leitz junior maneuvered the family company through the war years, which thanks to this continuity also survived the currency reform and developed into the leading international manufacturer in its branch in the 1950s.

New materials after the war

While solid wood processing still dominated in the 1930s and 1940s, wood-based materials and composite products conquered the furniture and interior design market after the war. The new wood-based materials presented machining technology with completely new challenges: In the 1950s, therefore, new types of tools with hard metal cutting edges were developed. In addition to classic woodworking tools, product lines for plastics and non-ferrous metals as well as for wood-based materials and the composite products derived from them were created - the Leitz product range almost doubles within a few years. The sales company Emil Leitz was integrated into the company, further sales and service companies in Germany and Europe were added.

Internationalization and expansion

In 1956 Leitz founded its first foreign sales company in the Netherlands. In 1961, the Austrian plant in Riedau was the first production facility abroad. In 1964, a production site was set up in Unterschneidheim as an extended workbench of the main plant, where later, in addition to machine knives, drilling and shaft tools, carbide-tipped saw blades were also produced.

In 1979 Leitz opened a production facility and a sales office in Brazil. A few years later, the company opened up the Anglo-American region and, in the 1990s, the Eastern European and Far Eastern markets, each with the establishment of new Leitz sales companies. At the same time, the company expanded in the 1980s through the acquisition of companies in the industry in Germany, the USA and Italy.

Culture

Leitz has made a name for itself as an organizer and sponsor of cultural events and institutions: Since 1991, the company has been organizing the Jazz Lights, an annual international jazz festival, together with the city of Oberkochen. The LIGNORAMA wood museum in Riedau counts Leitz among its sponsoring partners.

literature

  • 50 years of the Federal Republic of Germany . Social market economy in probation , ed. in collaboration with the German Industry and Trade Day (DIHT) , 2nd edition, Oldenburg: Verlag Kommunikation & Wirtschaft 1999, ISBN 3-88363-169-8 .
  • Produce green , ed. from the Association of German Mechanical and Plant Engineering (VDMA), Cologne: German Standards Editions 2010, ISBN 978-3-8349-2313-4 .
  • Hannes Hesse; Florian Langenscheidt ; Hartmut Rauen (ed.): The Best of German Engineering . The Lexicon of German Mechanical Engineering , 1st edition, Cologne; Frankfurt / Main: German Standards Editions / VDMA Verlag, ISBN 978-3-81630-646-7 .
  • Ferdinand S. Horcher; Josef Saum (ed.): Timelines . Biography Prof. Dr. Dr. Ekbert Hering , Aalen: cross7media 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-023591-7 .
  • Florian Langenscheidt; Peter May (ed.): From the best family . Over 100 exemplary German family businesses , 2. new work. Aufl., Cologne: German Standards Editions 2011, ISBN 978-3-86936-254-0 .
  • Florian Langenscheidt; Bernd Venohr (ed.): Lexicon of German world market leaders , Cologne: German Standards Editions 2004, ISBN 978-3-409-12660-1 .
  • Bernhard Lott : The cooker from the source to the mouth , Künzelsau: Swiridoff 2002, ISBN 3-934350-80-1 .
  • The Ostalbkreis - very personal , ed. from the Ostalbkreis district office, Coesfeld: neomediaVerlag 2011, ISBN 978-3-931334-63-5 .
  • Economic region of East Wuerttemberg , ed. in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of East Württemberg, 3rd completely new edition, Oldenburg: Verlag Kommunikation & Wirtschaft 2008, ISBN 978-3-88363-291-9 .
  • Bernhard Theiss; Ulrich Theiss; Andreas Stephainski (ed.): Time travel. 2000 years of life in the Aalen region , Göttingen: Edition Zeit Reise 2010, ISBN 978-3-9812527-6-7 .

Web links

Commons : Leitz GmbH & Co. KG  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b www.leitz.org (accessed October 30, 2014).
  2. ↑ a b Consolidated Financial Statements as of December 31, 2017 in the electronic Federal Gazette
  3. ↑ Florian Langenscheidt; Bernd Venohr (ed.): Lexicon of the German world market leaders. Cologne: German Standards Editions 2010, p. 370.
  4. ↑ Bernhard Theiss; Ulrich Theiss; Andreas Stephainski (ed.): Time travel. 2000 years of life in the Aalen region , Göttingen: Edition Zeit Reise 2010, p. 61.
  5. ↑ Florian Langenscheidt; Bernd Venohr (ed.): Lexicon of the German world market leaders. Cologne: German Standards Editions 2010, p. 370.
  6. ↑ 50 years of the Federal Republic of Germany . Social market economy in probation , ed. in collaboration with the German Industry and Trade Day (DIHT), 2nd edition, Oldenburg: Verlag Kommunikation & Wirtschaft 1999, p. 152.
  7. ↑ a b Leitz - a strong company association . In: Schwäbische Post No. 212/2001 (September 13, 2001), special supplement, p. 1.
  8. ↑ Bernhard Theiss; Ulrich Theiss; Andreas Stephainski (ed.): Time travel. 2000 years of life in the Aalen region , Göttingen: Edition Zeit Reise 2010, p. 61.
  9. ↑ www.jazzlights.de .
  10. ↑ www.lignorama.com .

Coordinates: 48 ° 46 '47.8 "  N , 10 ° 5' 55.3"  E