Kärcher

Beginnings in Stuttgart and the war period

In 1924, after graduating from the Technical University of Stuttgart, Alfred Kärcher (1901-1959) joined his father's business, which sold industrial cooking and laundry equipment in Stuttgart's Bad Cannstatt district. In the following years, Alfred Kärcher began to develop equipment such as electric immersion heaters and crucible furnaces for industrial use, which became the basis for founding his own company. In 1935, he founded the Alfred Kärcher Kommanditgesellschaft in Bad Cannstatt; his father Emil was a partner until his death.[5][6][7]

One of the first commercial successes was a salt bath furnace for the energy-saving hardening and refining of light metals. Kärcher, whose company had only limited production capacities of its own at the time, sold the patent for this to Siebert GmbH in Frankfurt am Main. Over 1,200 units of the system were sold by 1945, primarily in the aviation industry.[8]

Due to lack of space, 120 employees moved to Winnenden in 1939, where the company has been headquartered ever since.[6]

At the beginning of the World War II, the company was involved in the defence industry and produced cabin heaters and devices for de-icing wings and tail units for the Luftwaffe, among other things. As early as 1934, Alfred Kärcher had developed petrol-powered hot air blowers on behalf of Lufthansa, which were used to preheat aircraft engines in winter to facilitate starting. During World War II, these mobile heaters were also used by the Wehrmacht to preheat engines and prisoners of war were used in production.[9] Kärcher had a Russian camp, a Polish camp, a French camp and the Ruitzenmühle camp.[10]

In the immediate post-war period, Kärcher mainly built products such as cookers, small cookers, handcarts and trailers for the population. Later, heatable concrete formwork and fresh air heaters were also manufactured, which were intended for reconstruction work in the cities destroyed by the war.[8] In 1948, the company was commissioned to repair the steam cleaners of the United States Army.[7]

1950–1989: Irene Kärcher, internationalisation of the company

In 1950, the cleaning technology division was established with the development of the first European hot water high-pressure cleaner, the DS 350.[11] From the mid-1950s to the 1970s, the production of steam generators for industry and construction was a key focus for the company, while cleaning technology only later became Kärcher's main revenue-generating sector.[12]

On 17 September 1959, Alfred Kärcher died at the age of 58 from a heart attack. He left behind his wife, Irene Kärcher (1920–1989), and their two children, Johannes and Susanne.[13] Irene Kärcher then took over responsibility for the family-run business.[14] Under her leadership, the company's revenue increased by 70 percent in the first year.[13] In 1962, the first sales company outside Germany was established in a small suburb of Paris, followed by further sales companies in

From the 1990s: New business areas, takeover of other companies

In the 1990s, Kärcher increasingly entered the business areas of commercial floor cleaning and municipal technology. In the private cleaning sector, the company launched various appliances such as hoovers and steam cleaners onto the market.[20] In 2003, Kärcher launched its first fully autonomous cleaning robot for consumers, after which the company focused more on robotics.[15] In the mid-2000s, Kärcher also expanded into the gardening sector and began producing garden pumps.[15][16]

At the end of 2011, the company purchased the site of the former Pfleiderer brickworks in Winnenden, which nearly doubled the operational area.[21] In September 2012, the old brickworks was demolished, and construction began on an expansion for Kärcher. In September 2014, a new office building for 700 employees and an event building for up to 800 people were opened on the site.

Kärcher main company

Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG is the parent company of the Kärcher Group, which has over 160 subsidiaries. In 2023, the Kärcher Group had a total of around 16,000 employees worldwide and generated a turnover of around €3.29 billion.[31]

Hartmut Jenner has been Chairman of the Executive Board of Kärcher since 2000.[32]

Cultural sponsorship

Since 1980, the company has undertaken over 190 cultural sponsorship projects worldwide,[87] focusing particularly on the cleaning of renowned historical buildings, monuments, and sites.[88] This work is carried out in collaboration with restorers and conservationists.[89] Kärcher offers these services free of charge;[88] according to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, however, Kärcher can simultaneously use these high-profile projects for advertising and showcasing its equipment.[84] As of 2019, Kärcher undertook approximately ten to fifteen cultural cleaning projects per year, involving up to 15 employees in each project.[90]