Freudenberg – Innovating together
Freudenberg’s success goes back to the time when 14-year-old Carl Johann Freudenberg became an apprentice for his uncle Jean-Baptiste Sammet in the Mannheim leathers-trading company Heintze and Sammet, which was founded in 1823. The young man did very well: he became a partner, developed the business and ended up acquiring sole ownership of the company, which took on the name of Freudenberg. When Carl Johann Freudenberg passed away at the end of the 19th century, he left his two sons one of Europe's biggest tannery, which is still today a successful family business and has diversified over the years.
Years later Dr. Ralf Krieger became a member of the board of management at Freudenberg Group after several stations within the company. He served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies and worked in several positions before that including speaker and CFO of Freudenberg-NOK General Partnership as well as CEO of Freudenberg IT. Dr. Krieger studied at the University of Mannheim where he obtained a doctorate in Business Administration in 1995, after working five years as assistant professor and lecturer. He remains a part of the University´s board of trustees.
The Freudenberg Group is still a family-owned group of various, highly diversified companies. Present in 60 countries worldwide, the group´s product line ranges from housewares and cleaning products to automobile parts, textiles, building materials and telecommunications. As various businesses are part of the group, Freudenberg sees the importance of valuing this diversity and allowing each business to develop long term planning strategies while retaining a shared identity in the Freudenberg group. Already including several businesses, the group is open to joint ventures if they complement or strengthen Freudenberg’s business operations in useful ways.
Freudenberg describes itself as “a values-based technology group that best serves its customers and society”. This statement expresses Freudenberg´s ambition to be a technology leader that produces top-quality products while also contributing to society. The main characteristic of the Freudenberg group is its strong values based philosophy. Fairness and personal trust are considered the base of any relationship with associates.
Freudenberg´s headquarters are still in the original 1829-acquired location in Weinheim, near Mannheim in Germany. The Weinheim location is part of the identity of the group. In this one place, substantial resources of knowledge, tradition and infrastructure are concentrated. As for the future, Weinheim should stay an important production location for the company, keeping up the relationship with its Rhine-Neckar roots.
