Welger

Welger Maschinenfabrik GmbH '
legal form	GmbH
founding	1899
Seat	Wolfenbüttel , Germany
Number of employees	375
sales	EUR 67 million
Branch	Agricultural machinery
	Status: 2008

Welger in Wolfenbüttel

Welger (formerly Welger Maschinenfabrik GmbH ) is a manufacturer of agricultural presses. This also resulted in the now independent Welger Recycling Engineering GmbH in Braunschweig , which produces compression technology for the industrial sector.

Welger employs around 360 people and in 2005 had a sales volume of 60 million euros. Today the company's former agricultural engineering division is part of the AGCO Group. This offers baling presses under the names Lely-Welger , Fendt and Massey Ferguson .

history

Beginnings

This family business started in 1856, when Gottfried Welger opened a locksmith's shop in Seehausen on the Magdeburg Börde . In the 1890s, the first plant for agricultural machinery was built in Seehausen. With his two older sons Carl and Emil he led the company, which operated under the name of "Gebrüder Welger, Maschinenfabrik". The Wolfenbüttel “Maschinenfabrik Gebrüder Welger” was founded in 1899 by the younger brothers Franz and Gustav Welger .

The aim of the Wolfenbüttel company was the development and production of straw presses for agriculture. The Welger brothers came up with the idea of automating agricultural work. At that time z. B. Harvesting performed laboriously by hand. In 1901 the first straw press with an automatic tying device was invented. Numerous innovations and patents followed, such as the oscillating piston press WSP (1932) or the first high-pressure press AP 15 (1950). From the 1950s onwards, people started to manufacture fertilizer and manure spreaders as well as loading wagons . The need for stationary presses for residual materials and the steadily growing market in industrial recycling opened up a further field of activity for Welger in the early 1970s. In 1972 Welger launched a stationary press for packaging materials such as paper and cardboard . In the same year, Welger was awarded the patent for round balers, which was licensed to large manufacturers of agricultural technology worldwide.

Sale of the company

In 1994 the Welger family withdrew from the family business, clearing the way for a takeover by the Dutch Lely Group . In 1996, Rudolph & Sohn GmbH took over the production, sales and service of the entire Welger vehicle range under an exclusive license.

From 2000

In 2005, more than 350 employees generated around 60 million euros with baling presses and industrial compacting machines for packaging material .

Welger regained its independence through a management buy-out ten years after the takeover by Lely. The private investor group Andlinger & Company took over the majority in Welger Maschinenfabrik GmbH in 2006, while Lely bought itself back into the company as a minority shareholder.

Within the Welger Group there are the subsidiaries “Welger Vertriebs GmbH”, “Welger Recycling Engineering GmbH” in Wolfenbüttel and “Welger Oberflächentechnik GmbH” in Hanover .

Thanks to long-term sales cooperation for baling presses and wrapping machines, Welger has a worldwide sales network. The international orientation is reflected in an export quota of 85%. Welger agricultural machinery is used in 50 countries.

In 2008 the Lely Group from the Netherlands and the American Vermeer Company take over . Lely holds three quarters of the shares and Vermeer one quarter. However, Vermeer has the option of increasing its stake to 50%. The products are now to be offered under the brand names Lely or Vermeer, depending on the region. In September 2016 Lely took over all shares in Lely Vermeer Maschinenfabrik GmbH . In 2017 Lely sold the forage harvesting technology division, and thus also Welger, to the AGCO group.