Company History
It all started with paper and cardboard, and now it’s electrical insulating materials, composites, solar and electronic materials, and special laminates, products which have raised the KREMPEL-GROUP of Vaihingen/Enz to become world market leaders in a whole range of sectors. From the paper and cardboard business which August Krempel started in 1871 in Stuttgart, and a paper mill which the sons of the founder acquired in 1911 in Vaihingen, a company came into being which in the course of its 140-year history has developed a vast range of know-how in dealing with papers, films, fibres, mica, resins, adhesives, and plastics.
Foundation
- 1871 Founded by August Krempel. Commercial activities with a variety of paper products.
- 1911 The second generation of the Krempel family takes on responsibility within the company. They acquire their own paper mill in Vaihingen/Enz.
- 1918 Start of precompressed pressboard production at the Vaihingen plant.
- After 1945 The third generation joins the management. The company is built up again after the war.
- 1945-1960 Concentration on the production of pressboard and other technical papers.
Diversification
- 1961 Acquisition of the Kuppenheim plant.
- Start of production of rolled pressboard and flexible multi-layered insulation materials.
- From 1965 Transfer of the know-how into areas of application outside the electronics sector. Start of manufacture of flexible base laminates and fibre-reinforced semi-finished products.
- 1988 Company headquarters moves to Vaihingen / Enz.
- 1989 Assumption of representation of TEDLAR®, from Du Pont.
- 1991 Sales and marketing office opened in Vienna.
- 1991 Acquisition of the Thalheim and Zwönitz plants in the former GDR, after the reunification of East and West Germany.
- 1991 The company is divided into Divisions:
Electrical insulating materials, Composites,
Base materials
- 1991-1992 Investments in the redevelopment of the plants in Saxony. At the Thalheim plant, the world’s largest production system for the continuous production of rolled pressboard.
Globalization
- 1993 Establishment of a sales and marketing company in England: KREMPEL LIMITED.
- 1998 Sales and marketing offices opened in Asia
(Singapore & Bangkok).
- 2000 Sales and marketing company set up in the USA: KIT - Krempel Insulation Technologies.
- 2000 Acquisition of JSI Jones Stroud Insulations and AAVF Anglo-American Vulcanized Fibre, United Kingdom.
- 2002 Completion of the total modernisation of the Zwönitz plant.
- 2004 Establishment of a sales and marketing office in Xiamen, China.
- 2006 Production plant for electrical insulating materials set up in Xiamen, China.
- 2007 Production line for hot-pressed pressboard, POWERBOARD AK, at the Zwönitz plant.
- 2011 Production plant for solar laminates in Zhangjiagang, China.
- 2011 Investments at the Kuppenheim plant to increase manufacturing capacities for solar materials.
- 2012 Acquisition of DMI, Brazil.
