Beumer celebrates 80th anniversary

This year, Beumer Group celebrates its 80th anniversary.

Beumer is a world leader in system solutions for intralogistics in conveying and loading technology, palletizing and packaging technology as well as sortation and distribution systems. These solutions serve industries such as cement, lime and gypsum, agriculture and mining, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, energy, food and beverage and also in airports and logistics centers.

“We can only achieve a high level of customer satisfaction and a sustainable, successful market presence when the whole team is involved in the corporate strategy in the long term,” explains Christoph Beumer, chairman and CEO of BEUMER Group. He has been managing the family business since 2000, now in the third generation. Beumer thanked the company’s 4,100 employees, each of whom comes from different cultures and backgrounds, and many of which have joined the group as a result of its corporate acquisitions.

On December 9, 1935, then 33-year-old Bernhard Beumer started his first work day as an entrepreneur with four employees. Until then, he had been working for a conveying technology company in Essen. One of his most important seed assets, aside from his courage and determination, was the experience he gained as a repair mechanic for conveying technology, working in the mining industry in the Ruhr area before completing his degree in engineering. Bernhard Beumer had long entertained the idea of being independent and founding his own business. When he learned that a vacant factory building in his hometown of Beckum was up for sale, he seized this opportunity. The company has been there ever since.

Beumer’s eldest son was also named Bernhard, and he worked at his father’s side for 18 years before taking over the company after his father’s death in 1981. By the mid-1980s, the company had installed about 100 systems altogether; in 2007 and 2008 there were about 450 installed per year, worldwide.

Since 2000, Christoph Beumer, the founder’s grandson, has been managing the company.

“I view the company as a little jewel case,” Beumer said. “When my grandfather founded it, it was no more than a little wooden box. He added some velvet lining to it and then handed it over to the second generation, my father, who added some more and embellished it further. My belief is that if you receive the little box, your task is to keep it safe, to maintain it, and, if possible, always add a little to it. Under no circumstances may you remove anything or simply live off of it.”