Back in 1870 Carl KRAFFT & Söhne was founded as an engineering company and foundry in Düren, in the west of Germany. The town and the region were developing successfully by the impact of the growing paper industry. So KRAFFT became a provider for goods and services for the paper mills in the area among other factories in the prospering area.
After after handing over to the son and surviving two wars, in 1955 the owner Carl Eberhard Krafft died and the company suffered from a lack of leadership as the granddaughter of the founder was not prepared and educated to become the chairwoman of the enterprise. The situation lead into a crisis and it was Eberhard Hess, her son, who convinced her not to sell the company. At very young age he became the boss in KRAFFT pushed the business back on a successful track. Building and selling paper and cardboard machines the company slowly recovered. The process was supported by a new partner in the business. Dietrich Nebel, an engineer who developed mill board machines joined as a shareholder in 1969. As the business with complete lines became more and more difficult for the comparably small company, Eberhard Hess started to promote rollers as a core product in various industries. With success. By time KRAFFT was introduced to a wide range of applications where rolls of different kinds and sizes were needed. The KRAFFT engineering department developed solutions and improvements for new customers and by this rollers developed to the most important product in the portfolio. When Dietrich Nebel retired in 1989 KRAFFT had already transformed into a roller manufacturer and in the upcoming years the factory adopted to its related tasks even more.
The original site was renovated and improved and a second workshop for the bigger workpieces was built “down the road”.
In 2008 Eberhard Herr handed over the company to his children Alice and Michael. In 2014 Peter Kayser joined as a shareholder and sales manager. During the last decade many developments and changes occurred in the KRAFFT organisation and a lot of investments have been done to strengthen the capabilities of the enterprise, which may be called Europe´s no. one independent roller manufacturer – for rollers in paper production and far beyond! Just in the year of its 150. anniversary an enlargement of the workshop was completed and turnover increased to throw the 30 million Euro turnover threshold. KRAFFT Built the world´s largest drying cylinder in a welded steel construction and this “KSD” (KRAFFT Steel Dryer) became a benchmark product on the market.
For the future there are more projects to develop the company, especially by means of digitalisation, processes and communication. Corona fortunately didn´t have a big impact and the outlook to 2021 lets the board feel optimistic.
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