CPT International 01/2018

PRESSURE DIE CASTING
Robert Piterek, German Foundry Association, Düsseldorf
Globalization in Swabian
60 years after Föhl was founded, looking back is much less interesting than looking ahead: the
zinc and plastic caster from Rudersberg near Stuttgart is preparing itself for the future with re-
nese
market
die-casting foundry”), the consolidation
of important processes, further
work on establishing a corporate culture,
and the professionalization of
further education and training.
Dr. Frank Kirkorowicz, Föhl’s President and CEO, at the Michelau die-casting plant.
(Photos: Andreas Bednareck)
In 1958, Germany’s economic miracle
was driving development, and the
die-casting process was still a comparably
new technology: Adolf Föhl,
then a toolmaker at pressure die-casting
machine producer Oskar Frech,
Schorndorf, Germany, recognized the
potential of this production process
and exploited his professional knowledge
to set up his own company –
Adolf Föhl GmbH + Co KG. An initial
injection molding plant rapidly became
a sizeable machine park in which
zinc die-casting machines soon played
the leading role. The marriage of Adolf
Föhl’s sister to Oskar Frech marked
the creation of a fruitful partnership
between the technology user and the
supplier, that has lasted to the present
day.
60 years after its founding in the late
1950s, Föhl is celebrating a decadal jubilee.
The Swabian foundry is now a
flourishing group of companies with
sales of 107 million euros and almost
700 employees in five works in Germany
and China. It is still a matter of
recognizing and exploiting potentials.
Because the caster from Swabia is currently
developing the company’s future
foundations. The program for the
coming years includes the launch of
newly developed technologies in Germany
and China, expansion of the
works in Michelau (which is already
considered “Europe’s most modern
Creating value by appreciating
value
As President and CEO, Dr. Frank Kirkorowicz
has been steering corporate
development since the mid-1990s. In
this he is supported by his Executive
Board colleagues Ulrich Schwab (Chief
Operating Officer) and Boris Langer
(Chief Financial Officer). Kirkorowicz,
who studied medicine in Heidelberg
and is the grandson-in-law of the company’s
founder, has led the firm through
highs and lows in recent decades, turning
it into an SME global player with the
construction of a Chinese works in Taicang
near Shanghai. With success: the
workforce has doubled, today’s sales of
more than 100 million euros are now
five times higher than in 1996, the year
he joined the company. “When I started
at Föhl I decided to expand the company
in such a way that it could rapidly
adapt to changing conditions,”
explains the former trauma surgeon
who gained the necessary know-how
for his current tasks at the respected St.
Galler Business School. In his opinion,
Föhl’s adaptability means, on the one
hand, a functioning corporate culture
under the motto ‘Creating value by appreciating
value’. “We see people holistically,
they must feel good and be able
to develop – then they can call up the
performance that we need,” according
to Kirkorowicz. A conviction that derives
from his medical past. On the other
hand, the father of three daughters
wants to maintain the company’s state-
32 Casting Plant & Technology 1 / 2018