Anniversary Feature
90 Years of Being Ahead Memmert – A Success Story from the Metropolitan Region of Nuremberg
90 years ago, in a small timber-framed house in the Franconian town of Schwabach (Germany), the history began of the company Memmert – today, the world’s leading innovator when it comes to the development of climate and temperature control appliances for applications in R&D, industry and medicine. To-date, it has been a history marked by great boldness, an exceptional level of innovative strength and, last but not least, a healthy dose of adventurous spirit.
This year, Memmert can look back on a 90-year long eventful company history. Ever since it was fi rst founded under the name ‘Elektro-Ing-Buero-Willi Memmert’, the family company has continuously evolved and, today, stands out as a globally active high-tech specialist. Its climate chambers, heating and drying ovens, incubators, medical devices and water baths are all manufactured in Franconia and their consistent high quality has been instrumental in catapulting the company into the ‘Encyclopaedia of German World Market Leaders’.
From Schwabach into the big wide world
When Willi Memmert and his wife Eva-Babette Memmert opened the doors of their small electrical business in their hometown of Schwabach over 90 years ago, they had no idea that 15 years later they would have dealings with customers on the other side of the planet. Nor did they imagine that they would be cooperating closely with associates in India and Egypt in order to expand their business interests there and lay the foundation for future long-term partnerships. What’s more, all without speaking a word of English. Nonetheless, the entrepreneur Willi Memmert was convinced that there was a market for his fl agship product beyond the borders of Germany and he fully intended to tap into it.
It was also this pragmatic approach that resulted in the development of the ‘Aeolus’ back in 1947. In those days, raw materials were scarce. Willi Memmert therefore built the prototype from recycled aluminium from old aircraft parts. His methods for recruiting new staff were also unconventional: he was known to make offers to farm labourers if they looked hard-working and, if job-seekers going from door-to-door in search of work came by, it was not uncommon for him to tell them “You can start tomorrow”. Employees have described the company founder as a person for whom everyone had great respect – on occasion, customers have referred to him as a ‘universal genius’, able to come up with a solution to any problem.
“Here’s what we need: …”
“Our developments are responses to the suggestions and requirements of our customers,” says Christiane Riefl er-Karpa, the company founder’s granddaughter and managing director since the year 2007. “We deliver the solutions.” Having initially served the medical segment with its forerunner ‘Aeolus’, the company Memmert gradually began to receive more and more enquiries from a wider variety of industries. Whether research, pharmaceutical, cosmetics or foodstuff industry: throughout the era of economic miracle, the demand for accurate climate and temperature control technology was high. The innovation cycles of the originally small family business became increasingly shorter.
Aeolus and other milestones The foundation for success
In 1947, the trained electrical engineer was commissioned by the Red Cross to manufacture a hot-air steriliser – the ‘Aeolus’. It was used to keep syringes and other medical equipment germ-free thereby playing an active role in curtailing epidemics and diseases. The success proved the company founder right: by the mid-1950s, the company Memmert was already exporting its appliances internationally. And when business partners from distant places came to visit and joined the Memmert family for dinner at their family home, Willi Memmert’s daughter, Grete, was allowed to stay home from school. To translate.
Then we’ll just have to improvise…
This is just one of many examples that illustrates the role improvisation and practical organisational talent has played on Memmert’s journey from small family business to globally operating enterprise, today exporting to more than 160 different countries around the world.
The cornerstone of the company’s success was the ‘Aeolus’. This was followed in the 1950s by another milestone: a mechanical controller which, for those days, offered exceptionally high precision. The temperature could be set via a control knob with an accuracy of less than ± 0.5 °C. Equally as revolutionary: the world’s most accurate temperature control appliance with all-round heating system – the fi rst product launched by the future global player.
This was a technical innovation with heating coils placed in pressed swages in its inner chamber which meant that, for the very fi rst time, it was possible to construct a heating oven that wasn’t round, but square – which made it infi nitely more practical.
The following decade saw a drive for the establishment of a series production to enable the output of signifi cantly higher quantities. The 1970s and 80s focused on automating manufacturing methods and perfecting product design.
In 1976, management of the company was passed on to the next generation. Daughters Grete Memmert-Riefl er and Herta Ulrich and their respective husbands took over leadership of the fi rm after the death of Willi Memmert. They recognised the potential offered by advancing globalisation and paved the way for their open-minded company to tap into new markets all over the world.
Founder of Memmert GmbH + Co,. KG Willi Memmert
INTERNATIONAL LABMATE - JULY 2023
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