Walterscheid (company)
The Walterscheid GmbH is a manufacturer of automotive parts based in Lohmar . The company is currently part of the English group GKN Plc .
Beginnings
The company was founded in 1919 by the skilled lathe operator Jean Walterscheid († 1972). After he had worked in the armaments industry during the First World War , he became unemployed at the end of the war and began manufacturing gear rims for bicycles in a laundry room in Siegburg in 1919 with his friend Adolf Mletzko . Walterscheid was 27 years old at the time and married to Gertrud nee Buchholz from the neighboring village of Mülldorf . He had the lathe he needed from the closed Siegburg armaments works .
In 1923 Walterscheid moved with some employees, but without Adolf Mletzko, into larger rooms in the old waterworks on Wahnbachtalstrasse. As a result of the global economic crisis , the number of employees fell from 76 to a few. The company has now also repaired drive shafts.
In 1934 the company, which had grown to 15 people, moved to Hansamühlen am Mühlengraben. Axle shafts for cars and trucks were manufactured here. In 1939 50 people were employed and a turnover of 486,000 Reichsmarks was achieved. During the Second World War , armaments were worked on and slave laborers were also employed.
In 1945, for health reasons, management was transferred to Bernhard Müller from Lohmar, who had been with Walterscheid since 1935. The number of employees was only eight at the time, but gradually grew again. In 1952 Müller was adopted by Walterscheid, managing director and co-owner. From 1953 agricultural cardan shafts were produced.
Lohmar plant
The factory in Lohmar was founded in 1955. At that time, 399 people were employed and the annual turnover was 12 million marks. From 1957 pipe fittings were also manufactured. In 1961, the axle shaft production was also relocated to Lohmar. The number of employees rose to 940, the annual turnover to 50 million DM.
In 1963, Walterscheid-Müller and a British partner company founded Birfield-Transmissioni in Bruneck, Italy .
In 1964 Uni-Cardan AG was founded. In addition to Jean Walterscheid KG , this included the cardan shaft manufacturers Löhr & Bromkamp from Offenbach am Main and Essener joint shaft construction GmbH , later also the companies Glaenzer Spicer from France, Birfield Transmissioni and the Walterscheid forging and pressing plant based in Trier .
With the takeover of the Birfeld Group by GKN in 1966, it received its first shares in Uni-Cardan AG and in 1971 acquired the majority with 59.6%. Walterscheid employed 2132 people at the time and the annual turnover was 157 million DM.
GKN Walterscheid GmbH
After a lull and mass layoffs due to the oil crisis , subsidiaries were founded in 1976 in Burr Ridge , USA with Walterscheid Inc. and in 1980 with Matsui-Walterscheid in Tokyo . In 1986 the Canadian company Agmaster from St. Thomas was taken over. At that time it had 1,725 employees and a turnover of 289 million D-Marks. In 1990 a plant of its own was founded in Rodney , also Canada: Walterscheid Canada . 1660 employees were employed here and sales of DM 329 million were achieved. In 1993 the gear factory Kirschau GmbH was taken over (today GKN Walterscheid gear GmbH ). In 1994 Walterscheid Rohrverbindstechnik GmbH was spun off.
In 1998 GKN Walterscheid became part of the GKN OffHighway Division . The seat remained in Lohmar. 650 people are currently employed here (as of 2020).
Individual evidence
- ^ Rhein-Sieg-Rundschau v. December 31, 2019, p. 30, Cordula Orphal: "An upswing came with the cardan shafts"