George Endress and Ludwig Hauser

An odd assortment of buildings dotted about in different locations - a residential building, a carpenter's shop and a shed - formed the 'factory complex' of this small supplier of capacitive level meters. Employees and neighbours dubbed this ramshackle assortment as 'Huts Unlimited'.

The founders of Endress+Hauser were an unlikely pair - the Swiss engineer Georg Herbert Endress, only 29 years old, had just returned from England, whilst 59-year-old Ludwig Hauser was director of a cooperative bank in Lörrach.

By the end of the 1950s, 'Huts Unlimited' was bursting at the seams. So, in 1960, Endress+Hauser moved to Maulburg in the small rural community of Wiesental. The new modern building offered sufficient space for production and warehouse, despatch and development. A small swimming pool and an in-house canteen were an expression of the typical Endress+Hauser corporate culture. It prompted the local newspaper to comment: "It is noticeable that here the working man is the central point of the business."

Endress+Hauser GmbH, as the company was now named, had a workforce of 120 employees and generated a turnover of 6 million DM - ten times more than in its first year of business!

Now that the preconditions for further growth had been fulfilled, Georg Endress turned his attention to markets outside of Germany. The first office was founded in 1960 at Amersfoort in The Netherlands. Further offices opened at the rate of almost one a year in Switzerland, France, Belgium, Sweden, Austria and the UK. Capacitive sensors were joined by other methods of level measuring technology - ultrasound, radiometry, conductance and electromechanics.

The huge demand for Endress+Hauser instruments that began in 1968 was largely due to the way Endress+Hauser treated its customers. "First serve, then earn" (erst dienen, dann verdienen) was Georg Herbert Endress's motto. To this day, the company's customer-oriented policy is reflected in a whole range of measures - from in-company advanced training courses for customers through to the development of new products to customer specifications. This was a policy that was adopted by Endress+Hauser long before the notion of 'customer care' had become part of everyday language.

By about 1970 Endress+Hauser had already grown to a considerable size. Now it was a general supplier of level measurement systems with a turnover of 30m DM, a growth rate of 40%, 450 employees and sales centres in many European countries! The first steps were made in the direction of America and Asia with the opening a US branch near Boston and by acquiring an interest in Sakura Instruments in Tokyo (Japan). To be competitive on an international scale, it was necessary to be present in all three centres of the world economy - Europe, the USA and Japan.

 This striving for growth coincided with the first crisis. Strong demand had required the construction of a new, larger factory building with five floors and 8000sqm at a cost of 10 million DM. This took place at the same time as the oil crisis of 1973, followed by a recession that put an abrupt end to the post-war economic boom. There was a dramatic slump in sales and profits. The loans taken out for the new factory construction plunged the company into a cash shortfall. To cap it all, the company had to deal with the structural impacts of growth since it had expanded extremely rapidly from a small craft trade into a genuine industrial enterprise.

The company had now reached the end of its "industrial puberty", as Georg Herbert Endress put it. In 1971 he had taken over sole management of the company. After the death of Ludwig Hauser in 1975, the Hauser family had fully withdrawn from the business. Since then, the company has been owned entirely by the Endress family.

The crisis led to the birth of a new, decentralised company structure with an even stronger focus on employee initiative. "Leadership means encouraging other people to think and act for themselves, to promote their initiative and to guide their activities towards a common goal." This statement appeared in the management guidelines of 1971. The guidelines talked about performance motivation, self-realisation and education. They are still rooted in the success of Endress+Hauser today.

Continuing growth was on the agenda with the aim of rising up in the global league of manufacturers of measurement and control technology and achieving an extensive range of products. New fields of activity came, one after the other. With the acquisition of Wetzer, a company based in Southern Bavaria, Endress+Hauser expanded into recording technology. The acquisition of a participating interest in the Stuttgart company Conducta marked the company's expansion into analytical measurement. Flow measurement, which is today the activity with the largest sales volume, was started in 1977 with the founding of E+H Flowtec in Reinach (Switzerland).

The 1980s saw the next major technology challenge - microelectronics. It allowed totally new functions, for example continuous self-monitoring of all measurement systems. Georg Endress and his team placed all their bets on the new technology. Specialists were hired, employees trained and the whole company was trimmed to take on the technological revolution. A new research and development building was built in Maulburg. The employees were introduced to PCs at a time when others hadn't even heard of them!

At the Interkama trade fair in 1983, E+H presented several innovations including moisture sensors using thin film technology, the Autozero 2000 electromagnetic flowmeter and the revolutionary Liquiphant level limit switch, which is still synonymous with reliable level measurement today!

Endress+Hauser would have to work constantly to maintain its technological lead. Worldwide markets had become narrower and competition had become tougher. Despite this, new branches were established in Brazil, South Africa, Singapore and Hong Kong. The whole structure of the group of companies was rearranged and tailored to the long-term needs of the family-owned company. 1989 was until then the best year in the company's history. The company then employed a workforce of over 4,000 employees throughout the world.

By the 1990s, low-price and niche suppliers were making inroads on the European market - large Japanese and US conglomerates started to penetrate the market. The primary goal was to regain the technological edge. Fieldbus technology (bi-directional communication between devices in the field and the control room) became the driving force. Co-developed by Endress+Hauser, this marked the transition from signal-oriented to information-oriented measuring systems. Measuring systems became an integral part of process control. New measuring devices created new customer utility. It also marked a stand against the competition - Flowtec's Proline series proved to be a winner, along with the Cerabar pressure gauge.

The 1990s also brought a change of generation in the top management, when Dr Georg Endress decided to withdraw from day-to-day business. In 1995 he passed the baton on to his son Klaus Endress who has been the group's CEO (Chief Executive Officer) ever since. Klaus was well prepared for this task with his degree in industrial economics, his qualifications gained through employment with American companies outside of Endress+Hauser, and through real hard graft working in several Endress+Hauser companies.

Under his management, the top priority remained organic growth of the group of companies. Due to tough competition facing the company as the new millennium drew nearer, Endress+Hauser continued to pursue its policy of controlled expansion born from internal growth, fewer acquisitions and more joint ventures and networks. The company strengthened its presence on Asia's growing markets with new product centres in China and India. A new work area 'temperature measurement' was started. 'Analytical measurement' was strengthened by the acquisition of several technology-oriented companies, and new branches were set up all over the world. The Group's 'centre of gravity' remained the region around Basle where the three nations of Germany, France and Switzerland meet. This was intensified by further expansion in terms of new buildings and new staff. A limited number of marketing and technology joint ventures with partners and competitors forced the vertical expansion of the offerings made by Endress+Hauser - from equipment suppliers through to the providers of complete automation solutions, supported by setting up Endress+Hauser Process Solutions AG in Switzerland in 2000.

 Endress+Hauser will continue to be managed as an independent family business in the future. This was and is the firm intention of Klaus Endress and his seven brothers and sisters who, together with the GH Endress Foundation, are shareholders of the group of companies. Continuous growth from internal resources is indispensable to achieve this aim. However, developments at PPE at the end of the 1990s threatened to upset the boat. The printed circuit board manufacturer had entered the mass market for mobile radio PCBs in the mid-1990s and had become dependent on only a few major customers - totally against the unshakeable principles at Endress+Hauser. The sudden implosion of the mobile radio market sealed PPE's fate.

In 2001 the Group recorded red figures for the first time. The plant closure in the Alsatian town of Pulversheim and the excision of PPE from the Endress+Hauser Group were bitter but necessary actions to maintain the health of the Group's core business. "We paid our dues," stressed Klaus Riemenschneider, chairman of the new supervisory board formed in 2002.

Endress+Hauser grew and is growing faster than average for the measurement and automation branch. It entered its jubilee year (2003) with sales totalling over 1 billion Swiss francs and 6,000 employees. It continues to strive to keep its technological edge - in 2004 the number of patent applications based on new inventions totalled 168.

The transition to a service provider, which not only sells equipment but also offers complete solutions, is in full swing. Thousands of customers in fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and environmental protection trust in Endress+Hauser products. These are branches of industry that have long-term prospects and promise well for the future of the company.