Willy and Gerda Schwenger pass the majority of the company’s shares to their children.

With a turnover of 250 million Euro, has been the most successful year in the company’s history.

SUESSEN – The generation changeover within the management of Carl Stahl in Suessen, the leading specialist for rope-, lifting-, and safety–technology, has been successfully implemented beginning of this year. The long-established company remains a family business. Willy and Gerda Schwenger have trans-ferred the majority of their shares to their children Brigitte Biffar, Beate Urbez, and Wolfgang Schwenger. The latter being General Manager of the Carl Stahl Group together with Andreas Urbez and Wolfgang Funk.

The last business year will go down in company history for being the most successful ever. Under the leadership of the two Senior Managers Willy (76) und Gerda Schwenger (69) the group of companies generated revenues of 250 million Euro worldwide.

With the turn of the year the couple withdrew from operative business. Willy Schwenger will continue to share his wealth of professional experience as chairman of the advisory council of the company. Former managers Wolfgang Schwenger (42), Andreas Urbez (46), and Wolfgang Funk (58) have been appointed sole managing directors of the company.

Determination, innovation and solidity have long been the trademark of husband and wife entrepreneurs Willy and Gerda Schwenger. As a skilled draper, Willy Schwenger joined the management of the family business Carl Stahl in 1966 only to become sole managing director in 1975. His wife and great-granddaughter of Carl Stahl (who founded the company in Suessen in 1880) has always been present during the last 60 years. She also joined the General Management and among other tasks assumed responsibility for the Carl Stahl Life Jewellery Division.

Under their management the Carl Stahl Group has performed excellently. In 1968 the total company revenue hardly topped one million German Marks. Only 10 years later Willy Schwenger could refer to over 8 millions in turnover. In 1966 he founded the first subsidiary in Stuttgart. He also made the first strategic company acquisitions, making Carl Stahl a global player between 1972 and 1997. In this time turnover skyrocketed to over 200 Million Marks.

“A service will only become a value after it’s been sold”, is a guiding principle of Willy Schwenger. In strict accordance with this motto, the entrepreneur remained very ac-tive in the last years leading the company to even more success. New product devel-opments in rope and lifting equipment, many innovation prizes, new business seg-ments like medical devices as well as the well-planed expansion of the Carl Stahl Group are features of his thoughts and actions. For his merits he received the Baden Wuerttemberg Economy Medal in 2006.

For Willy and Gerda Schwenger it is not an empty phrase that success is only possi-ble with good employees. Since decades Carl Stahl has been offering training and seminars for employees and customers in the fields of rope and lifting equipment as well as in general management techniques. With the establishment of the Carl Stahl Academy in 2008 the couple could fulfil their wish to institutionalise lifelong learning. Meanwhile more than 2,000 participants per year benefit from this offer by the Carl Stahl Academy.