The story
Founding
In 1963, Gerhard Sturm founded Elektrobau Mulfingen GmbH & Co. KG together with Heinz and Günther Ziehl, the sons of Emil Ziehl, to build small fans. Elektrobau Mulfingen, which employed 35 people at the time, began the development and production of small external rotor motors a year before its official founding.
In the following years, the production capacity was expanded, including a 2400-square-meter hall with installed assembly lines that was built in 1971. In 1965, the first compact fans were developed: brushless DC electric motors. This was followed in 1974 by the development of the first compact fans in EC technology, which were more energy-efficient, and were initially manufactured for processes such as computer cooling, and later for cleanroom technology as well as home ventilation.
Expansion and rebranding 1980–2010
In 1992, the company took over Papst Motoren GmbH in St. Georgen, which Hermann Papst had founded in 1942. By 1996, the company had founded its first subsidiary in China with a new location in Shanghai. The telecommunications manufacturer Alcatel sold its plant in Landshut to Elektrobau Mulfingen in 2000, and it was renamed Motoren Ventilatoren Landshut GmbH. The following year, the first energy-saving centrifugal and axial fans with integrated electronics were developed, on which the latter produced EC fans were based. At the same time, the company founded additional international sales offices.
In 2003, the companies were renamed ebm-papst Mulfingen, ebm-papst St. Georgen and ebm-papst Landshut, with the name ebm-papst resulting from the merger of the companies, and the parent company operating as Elektrobau Mulfingen GmbH.
In 2007, ebm-papst exceeded the revenue threshold of €1 billion for the first time, and briefly employed more than 10,000 people for the first time in the 2008/09 financial year. In the same year, Gerhard Sturm withdrew from daily business to join the Advisory Board. Additionally, construction commenced on an energy-autonomous factory for energy-saving fans in Mulfingen-Hollenbach, which became operational in 2008.
In 2010, the company developed the GreenTech strategy, according to which every newly developed product is subjected to economic and ecological improvement in comparison to its predecessor. In 2013, Zeitlauf, a family-owned company founded in 1957 for epicyclic gearboxes, spur gearboxes and bevel gearboxes, was acquired. The company was initially renamed ebm-papst Zeitlauf, but later it was integrated into emb-papst St. Georgen and became a site of the company.
Product and business expansion 2010-present
In 2014, EBM-Papst introduced a new axial fan series and the Flowgrid guide grille was manufactured for the first time. In 2015, €137 million were invested in expanding production facilities, including a new building in the Hagenmoos industrial estate in St. Georgen for the production of electronic components.
Following Formula One's adjustments to regulations for the 2014 season, favoring enhanced energy efficiency and hybrid technology, ebm-papst initiated a collaboration with the Formula One team Mercedes-AMG Petronas. The company provided top-mounted cooling systems for the F1 W05 racing cars. These cooling systems were developed to efficiently regulate the temperature of the cars' components, particularly when the vehicles are at rest. The partnership continued until 2015.
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In 2017, ebm-papst built a 37,000 square meter dispatch center in Hollenbach and took over the Italian company LAE, which manufactures protective grids. In 2019, the Group extended its business operations in China, finalizing the construction of a 27,000-square meter production facility in Xi'an.
As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, ebm-papst ended its activities in Russia.
In 2022, ebm-papst reduced its supply to car manufacturers, fulfilling existing orders while declining new ones. In a strategic realignment, the company shifted focus towards the ventilation and heating technology sector, particularly targeting heat pump manufacturers and cloud service providers. In the same year, ebm-papst opened a production plant in Telford, Tennessee, in which almost 30 million dollars were invested.
In spring 2023, ebm-papst completed its 33,000 square meter Chinese headquarters in Shanghai, which combined the previous four locations in one building.
On April 1, 2025, the legal transformation of Elektrobau Mulfingen GmbH took place. Since then, the parent company of the ebm-papst Group has been operating under the name Elektrobau Mulfingen GmbH & Co. KGaA. In the summer of 2025, EBM-Papst sold its Industrial Drive Technology (IDT) division to Siemens, following negotiations that had lasted over a year. This move affected around 650 employees at the sites in Sankt Georgen im Schwarzwald (Germany), Lauf an der Pegnitz (Germany), and Oradea (Romania). According to EBM-Papst the proceeds from the sale will be reinvested into the Air and Heating Technology divisions.
As of 2025, EBM-Papst was building at several locations: a third production facility in India is being constructed in the city of Chennai, as well as a €30 million expansion of the existing plant in Xi'an, China. The Xi'an plant was opened at the end of 2025. In 2026, a new plant for smart fans, built with an investment of €30 million, was commissioned in Oradea, Romania. EBM-Papst also expanded its production capacity at the Mulfingen site by around 200 jobs.
Sale to Madison Air
On August 17, 2026, EBM-Papst announced its sale to the US company Madison Air for €4.775 billion. At that time, the company had over 13,000 employees worldwide, around 5,800 of them located in Germany. Upon completion of the sale, the families Sturm, Ziehl and Philippiak are no longer shareholders of the company. The sale is expected to close at the end of 2026; the headquarters will remain in Mulfingen.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ebm-papst, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4