The story
Foundation Phase
On 1 December 1923, the merchant Adolf Häfele, together with Hermann Funk, founded the business "Products of the hardware and tool industry" in Aulendorf.
Four years later this became a sole proprietorship with Häfele as sole owner. A few months later, the company moved to Nagold, which was then the centre of Württemberg furniture production.
At that time Häfele had three employees, customers were mainly carpentries in the surrounding area. In order to guarantee fast delivery, a wholesale warehouse was set up.
Internationalization
The first exports to foreign countries were in 1933, in the same year the company was awarded the Golden Medal for the design of the exhibition stand at the Strasbourg Fair. Shortly before the end of the decade, the first furniture fittings catalogue appeared with a circulation of 20,000 copies, which was referred to as the "World Globe Catalogue" because of its title page.
In 1948, the Adolf Häfele company celebrated its 25th anniversary and the number of employees was 29. Four months later the company founder died. His nephew Walther Thierer took over the management. A major fire destroyed the administration and warehouse in 1950, and it was not until a year later that the company was able to move into its new premises.
In the following 30 years the company grew to up to 700 employees, with whom an annual turnover of over 150 million DM was achieved, and expanded its sphere of activity to 120 countries. Sales subsidiaries were founded in Switzerland, France, Great Britain, the USA and Australia. In addition, the company was distributed among four production companies in Germany.
At the beginning of the 1960s, computer-controlled shipping was introduced. At the beginning of the 70s, a dispatch center with a high-bay warehouse was built. By 1977, the area available for storage had doubled to 8,400 square meters; today, the company operates a central warehouse with over 50,000 items, some of which is fully automated.
After the death of Walter Thierer in 1982, Hans Nock, until then export manager, took over the management of the company. Until 2003 he managed the company, which during this time grew to 2900 employees with a turnover of 534 million euros, and the share of foreign business in this increased to around 70 percent.
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As Hans Nock's successor, Sibylle Thierer has been the third generation of the family to run the company since 2003. According to the company, more than 160,000 customers are served in more than 150 countries.
In 2020, the company changed its legal form to "SE & Co KG".
Catalog
At the beginning of the 1970s, Walther Thierer developed a reference book for furniture fittings with 25,000 articles based on the model of his uncle's "World Globe Catalogue". In 1971 "Der Große Häfele" was published with a print run of 60,000 copies, followed two years later by editions in English, French and Spanish. A first catalogue for building and object fittings followed in 1981.
Production
Häfele produces fittings in four plants in Germany, since 1983 also furniture connectors sold under the brand name "ixConnect", and since 2009 also lift fittings branded "Free" and sliding door fittings under the brand "Slido".
With effect from 1 September 2009, Häfele GmbH & Co KG together with Heinrich J. Kesseböhmer KG took over the lift fittings and sliding door fittings divisions of Huwil Werke GmbH and a production facility in Hungary re-branding the operation "FCC" of "Flap Competency Center" and the product line "Free".
From Wikipedia’s article on Häfele Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5