History
From local manufacturer to global company
While today being a global supplier for process instrumentation and automation, KROHNE started as a small enterprise a century ago: Ludwig Krohne began to produce variable area flowmeters in Duisburg, Germany, in 1921. The main customers were companies from the metal industry in the Ruhr area who needed measuring devices for hardening furnaces.
The small family enterprise moved from rented facilities to company-owned buildings in 1936. As Ludwig Krohne and his son Karl both lost their lives during and in the aftermath of the second world war, Ludwig's wife Anna run the company in the post-war years.
In 1949, Anna Krohne asked her 28 year old grandson Kristian Rademacher-Dubbick to join the company. Although he had to sacrifice his profession as a painter for this new task, he soon took over responsibilities and under his leadership KROHNE – with an initial workforce of only 8 people – grew and became a leading innovative company for measuring devices. His unwavering will and his unconventional ideas helped to solve many application-specific problems of our customers, which has been the focus of our activities ever since.
Starting in the 1950s, many German companies began to enter new markets abroad, and KROHNE consequently followed its customers. Over seven decades, our strong commitment abroad has led to a workforce that is 80% based outside Germany.
In 1979, Kristian Rademacher-Dubbick relinquished his position of Managing Director and became Chairman of the Advisory Board. He could still be seen regularly in many international KROHNE subsidiaries, and he gladly followed the outstanding development of the company. Kristian Rademacher-Dubbick died in 2014 at the age of 92 years in Duisburg.
His successors have continued his heritage: the portfolio has been continuously expanded with new measurement technologies, engineered solutions and project lifecycle services to meet the changing requirements of our customers. We have established local contacts in over 100 countries, and built a network of production facilities to serve our customers in all regions of the world. New markets and industries were opened up, and KROHNE was rewarded with large international instrumentation projects.
KROHNE has advanced from an instrument manufacturer to a provider of industrial measurement products, solutions and services, while remaining an independent company owned by the Rademacher-Dubbick family.
In January 2020, Michael Rademacher-Dubbick, who successfully led the KROHNE Group for 25 years, became chairman of the advisory board. The KROHNE Group is now led by Dr Attila Michael Bilgic (CEO), Dr Marco Rudelli (CSO), Gaëlle Hotellier (COO) and Ingo Wald (CFO). The generational change ensures that the KROHNE Group will continue to be successfully positioned to meet the challenges of the market in the future. 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of KROHNE, and the aim of the new management team is to strengthen the foundation and to set the course for the next 100 years.