Company history
Friesian yesterday and today
The idea
The company was founded in 1992 by Joachim Friese and his son Bernardo. The idea was to use the know-how of his older brother Harald, who had already built up a roller business in São Paulo, Brazil, and to build a new plant for corrugating rollers in Germany. The aim was to become active in the European market.
Joachim Friese Company founder
New products on the way up
From the very beginning, the interests of the customers were the main focus. Friese visited corrugated cardboard plants to find out their wishes and needs. Friese soon responded to the companies' most frequent request for less abrasion and less waste in corrugated cardboard production with technological innovations. Aside from the previous methods of hardening corrugating rollers by quenching or nitriding, the company broke new ground with the tungsten carbide coating. In 1996, the new Rockwelle coating for corrugating rollers was introduced in Europe.
The patented steam heating (controlled condensate system / thermogrooves) has been standard at Friese since 1995, improving heat transfer and significantly reducing thermal distortion during production stops.
The company's expansion led to further improvements and new developments. The wear resistance of the Rockwell coating not only had an impact on the outside at Friese - benefits for customers - but also on the inside: it prompted the engineers to improve the wave profiles so that boxes with greater strength could be produced with problem-free production and significantly less paper usage: the ROCKPROFIL was born.
The path to success in numbers
In its first ten years as a specialized and innovative roller manufacturer, Friese managed to continuously gain market share and to become the technological leader among corrugating roller manufacturers worldwide. From the beginning to its tenth anniversary, Friese has invested more than €15 million, has three halls with 5,000m² and an extensive modern machine park. The company currently employs 60 qualified employees.
End of a company chapter - beginning of a new one
The anniversary celebration in 2002 also marked the end of a period in the company's history. Joachim Friese withdrew from operational management and enabled his son Bernardo Friese to become the new managing director of the company.
2002 – 2016 saw the expansion of an international sales network and the acquisition of customers by FRIESE within and outside the EU
After the two Friese gentlemen retired from active management, a management outside the family took over the leadership of the company.
Sven-Arno Siepmann is the new managing director
Mr. Sven-Arno Siepmann took over the operational business as Managing Director in February 2016.
Through his training and studies (Dipl.Ing. Mechanical Engineering – Energy Technology) with subsequent professional experience in Germany, South America, the USA and China, he had the best prerequisites to bring new impulses for further development into the company.
The main focus in the first few years of his work was to implement the upcoming generational change. This was successfully achieved through the interplay between many years of experience and fresh ideas.
Under his leadership, together with a team of motivated employees, various innovations and expansions were implemented:
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Generation of new markets and customers worldwide
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Deep hole drilling in the house
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SMETA Certification - Sustainability
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Founding of FRIESE North America
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Development and market launch of the new ROCKWELLE 4.0 coating
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Investments in the site through the construction of a new production hall
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Expansion of the machine park with several modern grinding and turning machines
And it won't stop there. There are several other projects in the planning stages that will be pursued and implemented in the coming years.
For the Friese company in Mupperg/Germany the motto always applies: