Brangs + Heinrich, now based on Felder Strasse in Solingen, can look back on 150 years of success as a provider of packaging solutions. For the big anniversary celebration on 27 June, the management had parts of its warehouses cleared out without further ado: the company celebrated this milestone in style with more than 600 guests and a live performance by Jan Delay & Disko No. 1.
The fourth-generation family business employs 180 people at ten locations in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Internationally, the packaging specialist generates an annual turnover of more than 100 million euros, particularly with industrial packaging and a focus on sustainability.
After the welcome by the two managing directors Jan Coblenz and Stefan Vogelskamp, who thanked the employees in particular for their many years of commitment, Solingen's Lord Mayor Tim Kurzbach congratulated them with words of praise: „Brangs + Heinrich is part of Solingen's industrial history and 150 is an impressive number.“ The packaging specialist proves that it is possible to shape change without having to throw its traditional values overboard, he said, alluding to the digital transformation. He expressly thanked the company for its training culture and its commitment to preparing young people for the future.
Henner Pasch, President of the Bergisch Chamber of Industry and Commerce, also emphasised the Chamber's close ties to Brangs + Heinrich in his welcoming address. He cited courageous and consistent decisions as one reason why the company has been able to develop so impressively: „The future is made of courage. Brangs + Heinrich proves this at every point.“
Sustainable, reliable partnerships
Maintaining long-standing business relationships is also something that characterises Brangs + Heinrich. And some partnerships have been with the company for 150 years: At the big ceremony, for example Hellmuth Eichhorn to speak on stage. As managing partner, he is the fifth generation to run Jülich Wellpappenwerke.
It was his ancestor Carl Eichhorn who introduced the two company founders to each other more than 150 years ago. Robert Brangs applied in Jülich for a packing paper consignment warehouse for his home town of Solingen, where many table knives were to be packed. As a young employee, Friedrich Heinrich handled the business. A short time later, in 1875, he went to Solingen and the two started working together under the name Brangs + Heinrich - with financial support from their former employer Eichhorn.
The business relationship between the two companies has remained alive to this day and Eichhorn also congratulates them: „Focus, passion and a willingness to change are what makes a successful company. People who rise to challenges. I congratulate Brangs + Heinrich on this successful partnership.“ He also talked about corrugated board packaging as „fibre-reinforced air“, which already has sustainability in its genes with an 80 percent recycled content.
Openness to new ideas as a driver for the future
„Today, our product range is not limited to packaging paper and corrugated cardboard. Even our founder cherished the guiding principle of systematic customer care,“ says Vogelskamp, referring to the long history of special anti-rust paper, which dates back to 1886. Back then, innovations in this area were particularly important for Solingen customers, as knives were not yet rustproof in the century before last.
Also Linda Cörper-Brook, one of the partners and great-granddaughter of company founder Friedrich Heinrich, was impressed and grateful in her speech: „It is not a matter of course that so many people put their heart and soul into a company for decades and are so willing to learn something new every day and develop further. My father would have been proud.“ Cörper-Brook thanked the management for 24 years of constructive cooperation, ingenuity and vision for the future. She hopes to be able to celebrate the 175th anniversary together.
The words of Bernhard Coblenz were also met with great enthusiasm. The former Managing Director of Brangs + Heinrich began his apprenticeship at the company in 1948 at the age of just 14. From his active days, he told the festive community about hygrosite, a crepe paper that was successfully sold as packaging in the post-war period as a substitute for expensive jute. Coblenz also knew how to surprise the audience with long straw, which Brangs + Heinrich sold for the transport packaging and insulation of tropical fruit. When Managing Director in the years 1970 to 2001 he appreciated the valuable market insights that a whole team of sales representatives brought into the company from customer meetings. „That was the best source of innovation for the management.“
Long-term affiliation of the workforce
The passion with which the two founders ran their small paper business back in 1875 has accompanied the company for over 150 years and carried it forward. „This is an important aspect of our success,“ Jan Coblenz is certain. „The deep commitment of our employees to the company makes us strong and convincing.“
Visitors were able to see, touch and try out sustainable packaging at the ceremony in Felder Straße: In the middle of the warehouse, with a view of paper mother rolls weighing tonnes and high shelves filled with a wide variety of products, Brangs + Heinrich a product exhibition was set up. In between, there is always a look back in history and lots of historical background information on the development of the company.
The official part was followed by the finest music: Jan Delay & Disko No. 1 delighted employees and their partners, long-standing customers and suppliers as well as local and association representatives. Members of various Solingen clubs, which the company supports as a sponsor of youth and popular sports, also attended.
Source: Brangs + Heinrich
