The history of KettenWulf starts on 01 October in the year 1925 at the very location which remains at the heart of the Group today – the beautiful Sauerland.
On the 2nd of January 1945, Erich Wulf, son of Johannes Wulf, joined the company. And so began the next chapter of the family history, in which everyone involved works closely together towards a common goal, as is still the case today. In this context, three values underpin everything now as they also did then: pragmatism, solidarity and responsibility!
In the 1960s, KettenWulf started to manufacture and sell its own sprockets.
At this time, the number of employees had risen to 110 and the company had grown into a successful family-owned business under the continuous management of the Wulf family in the preceding years. Further changes would follow.
In the 1980s, the German production facility was extended considerably and at the same time the administration building at our headquarters in Kückelheim was expanded. Shortly after this, the company’s first branch office opened in Belgium, which was the first step in the international expansion of KettenWulf.
The year 2000 was a special year, not only because of the new millennium celebrations: KettenWulf celebrated its 75th anniversary together with its workforce of now 500 employees! With 40,000 m² of production space, 6 corporate locations and a turnover of €70 million, we could look back on the past 75 years of company history with pride.
During the third construction phase in China in 2007, the production space of Hangzhou Wulf Chain Co. Ltd. was increased to 15,000 m². The KettenWulf group now employed over 1,000 staff and had premises around the world totalling 70,000 m².
In 2008, Günter Wulf celebrated his 30th anniversary as part of the management team, while the Group continued to grow. Staff numbers had now reached 1,200.
In 2015, we are looking back at nine decades of company history, continuous growth and numerous success stories. And we are looking forward to at least another 90 years of KettenWulf!
Firstly, a sales office was founded in June 2016 in Australia, secondly KettenWulf expanded its sales network in November 2016 with an office in Canada. The locations in Toronto and Sydney are an important step for KettenWulf to look after the respective markets optimally.
In 1986 everything started with a classical training workshop. Many trainees and development stages continued, everything has developed into a modern training center. The success proves us right, because many of the outstanding trainees still work in our company and continue to push its success.
In the area of material flow in particular, the company is switching to the latest control systems, which make this area much more efficient. In addition to these software solutions, the “hardware” obviously had to be adapted accordingly in order to generate the maximum performance from the overall system. Thus our new high-bay warehouse is a visible sign of the development in this area, even to the outside world.
A turbulent year 2020 lies behind KettenWulf. Despite the strong impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, KettenWulf was able to maintain production. In some areas, further investments and modernisations were even made. Thus, KettenWulf does not only associate negative news with the year 2020. The entire company is optimally aligned for the future and is already looking towards 2021 to take off with exciting projects.
Major investments to implement and complete the new material flow concept at the Kückelheim plant have been made over the years. In addition to the state-of-the-art honeycomb storage system for the raw material of the round part production, massive investments are also being made in the new sheet metal storage system and further machines in the laser department.