Forklift attachment manufacturer KAUP GmbH & Co KG aims to continue providing a fast turnaround for its bespoke solutions as it celebrated its 50th anniversary this year.
The medium-sized family enterprise, which turned 50 on 1 January, credits the "decades-long trust" of its customers in its attachments for its success.
"We are extremely proud of KAUP's development in the past 50 years," says Holger Kaup, one of the company's managing directors. He hopes the confidence shown in the company will continue in future.
Starting with just five employees, KAUP today employs about 700 people worldwide and is managed by the fourth generation of the Kaup family.
Its achievements include being the first manufacturer to introduce an attachment that can carry up to eight Euro-pallets simultaneously. The attachment is often used in the beverage industry as it speeds up the loading and unloading of trucks. KAUP also designed and manufactured the world's largest tyre transport and fitting device for a Ukrainian coal mine. The tyre handler transports tyres with a 4.6 m (15 ft.) diameter.
Customer requirements have always been important to the company, as have its employees who have kept the company going. "We are proud that we have so many experienced and long-term employees who stand by [us] in turbulent times," Kaup says. To invest in its human capital, there are currently 40 young people who are completing an industrial or commercial apprenticeship at KAUP.
It has also boosted investment in R&D and intensified marketing activities domestically and overseas as competitive conditions for forklift attachments changed in the last 50 years.
Marketing manager Gerald Schmitt says there were few attachment makers in the past, but today that number has multiplied, giving customers a larger selection to choose from. Price plays a significant role in market success.
He says while KAUP has a strong international focus, details of KAUP's marketshare or profits from overseas markets are confidential.
One of KAUP's co-founders, Otmar Kaup, 83, who also celebrated his 50th anniversary with the company this year, still works every day.
In 1894, Otmar's grandfather, Peter Kaup established a blacksmith shop in Leider, a suburb of Aschaffenburg. His son Kilian Kaup specialised the company in repairing inland ships and cranes. In 1962, Kilian and his son Otmar Kaup founded Kilian Kaup KG to manufacture forklift attachments.
In 1971, the business moved and started manufacturing on a 3,000 sqm (32,300 sqft.) site. In 1995, about 400 employees produced, for the first time, over 25,000 attachments in one year.
Last year, the company achieved a turnover of about EUR83 million (USD110 million). It now produces about 40,000 units annually. Attachments are manufactured in Aschaffenburg and Xiamen, China. It is represented in 33 countries with nine subsidiaries and 19 independent distributors.