Arburg GmbH & Co. KG is steadily approaching 95 years in business. The German company, founded by Arthur Hehl in 1923, first got its start making precision instruments for the medical industry before evolving into injection molding machines.
While the Lossburg, Germany-based company has welcomed technological changes that come with each passing decade — in 1979, it was nominated as an IBM pilot company and presented its first injection molding machine with a graphical user interface three years later, for example — one thing has remained constant: Arburg is a family-owned business.
Following Arthur Hehl's leading role in the company's start, Arburg was eventually passed down to his two sons, Karl and Eugen Hehl. In 2005, the third generation was brought into the mix.
Today, Eugen Hehl manages the company as a senior partner alongside his niece, Renate Keinath, and his two children — Juliane Hehl, who handles marketing, and Michael Hehl, a spokesman for the management team who also heads premises development. Keinath, daughter of the late Karl Hehl, leads Arburg's human resources management.
This next generation of family leadership runs a company that now has 2,300 employees at its 1.8 million-square-foot factory in Lossburg as well as an additional 500 employees at its 33 facilities in 25 countries. In 2016, sales figures for Arburg were 636 million euros ($753 million).