The story
Foundation
In 1876 Carl Benteler took over a hardware store in Bielefeld. From an early stage, the small hardware store offered an unusually wide range of products – from household appliances such as kitchen scales and bread slicers to washing machines. 1908 his son Eduard Benteler took over. 1914 the first patent application, “Window bars made from steel tube”, was filed. For the first time, the product that would become central to the company’s history – the tube – is specifically mentioned. In 1916 Eduard Benteler then bought an engineering factory in Bielefeld in which drawn tubes were manufactured for the first time in 1918. In 1922 Eduard Benteler founded the Benteler-Werke Aktiengesellschaft, which in 1923 started production of seamless and welded tubes in Paderborn and Schloß Neuhaus. In 1935 the company won its first major order from the automotive industry: Benteler produced exhaust pipes for the Ford Eifel. During the Second World War anti-aircraft guns were made in the Benteler factory in Bielefeld (including anti-aircraft guns 2-cm-Flak 38 and 2-cm-Flakvierling 38), until the factory was destroyed in 1944 in an air raid. From 1943 Benteler employed several hundred forced labourers, including prisoners of war.
Following the Second World War Eduard Benteler's sons Erich and Helmut built up the works again and greatly expanded the product range. Benteler was now supplying to the bicycle and car industries, it was producing seamless and hot rolled tubes and machinery for textile fishing, plastics and glass processing. In the buildings of the former military airfield Paderborn-Mönkeloh Benteler worked with the racing driver and car-maker Hermann Holbein: Between 1950 and 1952 about 2,000 "Champion" cars were produced. After that, for a short time, Delta refrigerators were made in Mönkeloh. In 1966 radiators remain part of the product portfolio for the next 20 years, until production was finally discontinued in 1986 in favor of forming technology, which was significantly more profitable. In 1974, the Benteler electric steel mill in Lingen began producing more environmentally friendly steel. Since 1980, the company has expanded internationally starting with the first Benteler Automobiltechnik GmbH location in the USA.
In 1991, Hubertus Benteler took over as management responsibility and turned the company into a global partner to the automotive industry. Shortly thereafter, BENTELER opened its first location in Mexico in 1992. The first location in China followed in 2002. In 2015, the Steel/Tube Division strengthened its position in the international market with a hot rolling mill in Shreveport. With the founding of HOLON, the company has been underscoring its ambitions in the global market for autonomous mobility since 2022.
Steel/Tube
In 1955 the first steel was poured in the newly built steel works at Paderborn-Schloß Neuhaus, and in 1958 the world's first continuous casting plant went into operation there. In 1974 the electric steel mill in Lingen (Ems) started production, and still today this plant is producing steel for the company's own hot rolling mills in Dinslaken and Paderborn and for external customers.
In 2007 Benteler took over the Swiss company Rothrist Rohr AG, which makes precision welded tubes, mainly for the automotive industry. With this steel tube plants in Rothrist and Bottrop passed into Group ownership. In 2011 there was a major fire in the hot rolling mill of Benteler Steel Tube GmbH in Dinslaken and production had to be stopped for several months. In 2015 Benteler Steel/Tube opened a hot rolling mill in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Automotive
In 1977 car axles were produced for the first time at the Benteler location in Paderborn-Talle, which was founded in 1956. Today this plant is the most important components factory in the Automotive Division. In 1985 a transfer line was installed for the first major order to manufacture rear axle beams.
In 1979 the company started to expand worldwide with the opening of its first plant in the US. From 1991 onwards Benteler specialized also in the just-in-time production and delivery of pre-finished components for automotive manufacturers. The automotive technology business area was now larger than the steel tube area. From now on new Benteler plants were opened almost every year. In order to deliver efficiently to local automotive manufacturers, production locations were opened or taken over in North America (from 1979, 9 plants to 2018), South America (from 1996, 6 plants), Southern Europe (from 1990, 15 plants), Eastern Europe (from 1995, 10 plants), Northern Europe (from 2009, 3 plants) and Asia (from 2000, 15 plants). In 2018, the plant in Chongquing was opened as a further production facility in China, as part of a joint venture with the Chinese company Changan Automobile Group. Benteler also opened a new plant in Klášterec nad Ohří in the Czech Republic in 2018. In 2019, a new plant was opened in Mos, Spain.
In 2008, in cooperation with the Wiesbaden-based SGL Group, Benteler set up the company Benteler SGL, a joint venture specialized in lightweight carbon materials, to supplement the focus on steel with competence in lightweight engineering. In early 2009 this joint venture took over Fischer Composite Technology GmbH in Ried im Innkreis, Austria. In November 2017 Benteler and the SGL Group agreed on the sale of Benteler's 50-percent joint venture participation in the SGL Group; this sale then took place in the same year. Also in 2009 Benteler acquired the Automotive Structures division of the Norwegian company Norsk Hydro, an international aluminum producer based in Oslo. In 2012 the company purchased the aluminum pressure-casting operations of Farsund Aluminium Casting (FAC) in Norway.
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Distribution
In 1957, in Berlin, Benteler opened its first tube and steel warehouse, which today is a part of the Distribution Division. Over the years Benteler founded or took over more than 50 distribution and warehouse subsidiaries in Europe, Asia and Australia. Benteler Most recently, before the sale, Benteler Distribution had 24 national companies in Europe and Asia, and other associated distribution companies in Germany, Switzerland, Northern and Eastern Europe.
In April 2014 construction work officially started on the new central warehouse in Duisburg port. Completed in 2015 this location, which has Europe's biggest high-bay facility, has over 35,000 square meters of storage space for 27,000 tons of tubes.
On August 27, 2019, the BENTELER Group announced the sale of the BENTELER Distribution Division (trading of steel tubes) to the Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group. Background of this divestment is an increased focus on the automotive business. The sale was completed on November 29, 2019. The Distribution Division is now part of the Van Leeuwen Pipe and Tube Group.
Restructuring
In 1999 Benteler was reorganized as a holding company with initially four independently operating business areas of Automotive, Steel/Tube, Engineering (integrated in 2005 into Automotive) and Distribution.
In 2010 the newly founded Benteler International AG, headquartered in Salzburg, took over the strategic management function of the Group. The operational business, with the Divisions Automotive and Steel/Tube has since then been organized in Benteler Business Service GmbH (until 2016 Benteler Deutschland GmbH) which is headquartered in Paderborn.
In April 2017 the long-standing Chairman of the executive board moved to the supervisory board. Ralf Göttel, until then Head of the Automotive Division, took over as CEO. For the first time in the company's 140-year history, the reins are not in the hands of a family member.
Trends in employee numbers and revenue
In 1976, one hundred years after the company was founded, Benteler employed 9,000 people and for the first time it surpassed DM1 billion in revenues. In 1995 company revenue broke through the €3 billion level. In 2001 the Group employed 17,000 people worldwide.
According to a survey by the trade publication "Die deutsche Wirtschaft", Benteler was ranked 27th in 2017 in the list of the largest family-owned businesses in Germany.
From Wikipedia’s article on Benteler International, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5