NEWS 7
From Black Forest workshop to global player
120 Years of Passion , Innovation and Striving for Perfection . There are three characteristics that run like a thread through Hansgrohe ' s corporate history and have made a decisive contribution to the successful development of the Hansgrohe Group .
With an inexhaustible passion for the element of water , sustainable innovative power and the constant pursuit of perfection , the fittings and shower specialist has become a global player in the sanitation industry since its founding 120 years ago . In Schiltach , a highly innovative region of the Black Forest , where the heart of the company still beats today , Hans Grohe , a trained clothier from Luckenwalde in the Eastern part of Germany , began producing metal spinning products with three employees . Today , with around 4 700 employees , Hansgrohe is considered one of the world ' s leading manufacturers of faucets and showers .
The Right Instinct Without a doubt , it was a courageous step that Hans Grohe took two years after moving from Luckenwalde to Schiltach . At that time , he turned his back on weaving and discovered the production of metal goods such as brass pans , clock parts or stovepipe rosettes for himself . From the very beginning , sheet metal showers were also part of the product range of Hans Grohe ' s small business . The tinkerer had the right instinct : at the beginning of the 20th century , the private home bathroom came into fashion and Hans Grohe soon specialised entirely in metal goods for the sanitary sector . In the decades that followed , he devoted himself passionately to the further development of his showers and quickly advanced to become the shower specialist in the German sanitary industry . With his ideas , he played a decisive role in shaping Hansgrohe ' s corporate history and the future of shower culture . From 1928 , his hand-held shower developed into a comfortable alternative to the overhead shower that was common at the time . His ideas continued to shape the style of modern shower technology for many decades . Even at the age of 82 , the company founder achieved a stroke of sanitary genius : He invented the shower bar , on which the hand-held shower could be fixed at any height – today a standard in bathrooms all over the world .
Alongside company founder Hans Grohe , who ran the business for 54 years , it was his youngest son Klaus who had a decisive influence on the development of the sanitation specialist . He joined his father ' s company in 1968 and led it for 33 years from 1975 onwards , developing Hansgrohe from a German drain specialist into one of the world ' s leading manufacturers of faucets and showers . At Hansgrohe in Schiltach , Klaus Grohe took over in 1977 and introduced the hansgrohe brand name in the same year . For the first time , he made environmental protection and sustainability an issue in the sanitary industry , drove forward the development of energy- and water-saving
Hansgrohe
From left : Klaus Grohe , son of the founder , and Hansgrohe CEO , Hans Juergen Kalmbach .
What began 120 years ago with three employees is now the Hansgrohe Group .
products , and paid attention to environmentally friendly and resourceconserving production . With the launch of the AXOR brand in 1993 , Klaus Grohe laid the foundation for the creation of iconic objects for luxurious bathrooms and kitchens . Since then , in collaboration with world-renowned architects and designers , faucets , showers and accessories have been created in a wide variety of styles and to the highest quality standards . These distinctive design objects are another expression of the passion for perfection that Klaus Grohe instilled in the company . His management style was characterised by his pragmatic approach and energetic drive , but also by down-toearth character . His credo as a perfectionist was : " Good is the Enemy of Better ." He chaired the Hansgrohe Supervisory Board from 2008 to 2015 and is now its honorary chairman .
September 2021 Volume 27 I Number 7 www . plumbingafrica . co . za