KNIPEX has been manufacturing pliers for over 130 years. It has remained a family business ever since Carl Gustav Putsch started making pliers in his small forge in Cronenberg in 1882. Today his great grandson, Ralf Putsch, is the fourth generation to manage KNIPEX. In this interview he talks about the development of the company from his own perspective TCVJGT VJCP KP VGTOU QH ƂIWTGU CPF UVCVKUVKEU
Ralf Putsch, Managing Partner
GENERATIONS
FOUR ONE SUCCESS When your great grandfather Carl Gustav Putsch founded his pliers forge the German empire was just 11 years old. This is a long forgotten world from today’s point of view. What challenges did he have to face then, and what was distinctive about those founding years? Unfortunately we do not know that much about our beginnings. However one can imagine that investment in his own forge must have been quite considerable, and that my great grandfather would have needed to procure capital from people YJQ JCF EQPƂFGPEG KP JKU CDKNKV[ CPF YJQ believed in him. He also had to succeed in the face of dozens of competitors located in the same area. His strategy of initially concentrating primarily on carpenters’ and farriers’ pincers must surely have been a help.
STORY
At the same time these pliers must have had a better price and quality ratio, or else he would not have been able to succeed as well on the market.
Is there anything that has remained the same in your family or at KNIPEX throughout all these years? Yes certainly. Firstly of course the specialisation on pliers and high quality requirements. It should also be noted, however, that my antecedents also worked to continuously improve their products and manufacturing processes. Last but not least, the solid and value-oriented management is a thread which has run through our activities throughout these years.
Your grandfather Carl Putsch ran the forge from 1922 through the global depression, dictatorship and Second World War. That cannot always have been easy. Despite this the company grew successfully into a larger industrial enterprise. How did that occur? 1H EQWTUG VJGTG YGTG FKHƂEWNV RGTKQFU KP these times, and things were not always straightforward. But apart from a passion for good pliers; hard work, courage and resilience played an important part. Luck was also involved – the company could have been completely destroyed in the war. Nobody knows what would have happened then. Therefore we have to be grateful for what we have escaped from.
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Carl Gustav Putsch
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