Today, KROHNE is an international company with a broad portfolio of instruments, solutions and services, primarily in process measurement technology and for various industries. With over 4000 employees worldwide, the company offers local contacts for its customers in over 100 countries and supports them in instrumentation projects of any size, from single devices to large projects.
But it was not always like this. When Ludwig Krohne founded the company in 1921, the first customers were a small number of steel producers from the Ruhr area. At that time, KROHNE built variable area flowmeters for hardening furnaces. Unfortunately, the Second World War then brought tragedy, as both Ludwig Krohne and his son Karl, who would have been his successor, lost their lives. This left KROHNE in the hands of Ludwig’s wife Anna Krohne. In 1949, she asked her grandson Kristian Rademacher-Dubbick to help her in the business. He lived as an artist and Anna Krohne needed someone with creative ideas to help her market the products of the company. He accepted this task and soon took over full responsibility for KROHNE. Although he gave up his profession as an artist for this, he has always remained closely connected to art as an enthusiastic collector.
At KROHNE, Rademacher-Dubbick found a new environment in which he could act creatively. As someone who had no knowledge of measurement technology or its marketing, he wanted to find out what drove customers, what they expected from the company and its products and what their wishes were. He decided to ask them directly and took his bicycle to visit those in the area.
This way he learned about their needs and expectations regarding process measurement technology. They also advised him to hire an engineer and to always put technology first. The engineer turned out to be the perfect sparring partner for the creative ideas that Rademacher-Dubbick presented to him in order to fulfil customer wishes. He kept this approach throughout his career and always motivated employees to think creatively.
This is how KROHNE became a pioneer in many measuring technologies that are standards in the process industry today. However, the realisation and industrialisation of these ideas was anything but easy and often involved lengthy processes.
The former KROHNE building on the Blumenthalstrasse in Duisburg.
International expansion
Parallel to pushing technology, the company expanded internationally. From the 1960s onwards, KROHNE followed its customers and by the 1980s, had subsidiaries in countries such as China, USA, United Kingdom, Japan, India, Russia and South Africa.
The company developed from a pure measuring technology manufacturer into a technology company at an early stage and consistently investigated new technologies and integrated them into industrial measurement technology. Quantum leaps in innovation, such as the development of a differential pressure measuring cell and the entrained gas management technology for Coriolis devices, were realised because people had the freedom to develop.
Since creativity is essential for the development of new measurement solutions, KROHNE placed its 100th anniversary under the theme – The Spirit of Creativity. It stands for an open approach to unconventional ideas. By placing the anniversary under the umbrella of this core message, the company was able to show elements of itself that involve more than pure technology. Therefore, four additional messages were added to reflect the other core values:
• The Spirit of Adding Value promotes creative ideas and out-of-the-box thinking to realise added value for our clients.
• The Spirit of Pioneering demonstrates the use of creativity and innovation to drive progress and break new ground.
• The Spirit of Artistry reflects the close relationship with art and culture as a source of creativity.
• The Spirit of Family Culture describes a corporate approach that is characterised by family cohesion, stability, cosmopolitan attitudes and appreciation.
KROHNE’s 100th anniversary embraces many different activities that converge under these messages to address and involve customers, partners and employees (https://100-years-krohne.com).
| Tel: | +27 11 314 1391 |
| Fax: | +27 11 314 1681 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.za.krohne.com |
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