Celebrating 60 years at Gerolzhofen plant

During their traditional summer party, the staff at Saint-Gobain Abrasives in Gerolzhofen in Lower Franconia, Germany, celebrated a special anniversary. Sixty years ago, the foundation stone was laid at this location for one of the best production sites for bonded precision abrasives.

The town mayor, Thorsten Wozniak, and many current and former Saint-Gobain Abrasives employees were invited to this milestone anniversary and together with plant manager Erik Kamm looked back on the plant’s eventful history.

Heinz Hahn was the first plant manager at the new location in Gerolzhofen and had a decisive influence on the early days of the facility. He and his team built modern production lines and an efficient management structure for the company, which was then still known as "Erste Fränkische Schleifscheibenindustrie Schweinfurt" (EFESIS), the First Franconian Abrasive Disk Industry in Schweinfurt.

“In the run-up to this anniversary, we had the opportunity to delve deep into the history of our plant once again. One of the people we had the pleasure of meeting was an ex-member of staff who had been actively involved in setting up the facility and could still remember the early days in Gerolzhofen well,” said Kamm in his welcome speech. “What we can take pride in, and which has not changed over the decades, has been and still is both the mutual support among colleagues and the continued investments in our production processes – and so in the quality of the abrasive solutions made here.”

A team of more than 100 staff at Saint-Gobain Abrasives in Gerolzhofen produces high-quality precision abrasive solutions tailored to the specific requirements of various industries. These include the rolling bearing, automotive and machine manufacturing, and tool machining sectors. The products made in Gerolzhofen are in demand around the world and supplied to locations as far afield as Australia.