Heritage company and innovative family business
This year, Fecken-Kirfel will celebrate its 150th anniversary. An age that is anything but self-evident for a company. So we can truly be a bit proud of it. Over 150 years we have managed to defy every crisis and continue to grow. „We plan at long-term and strategically on a healthy economic basis and develop continuously – these are the reasons for our success. We can rely on our motivated and innovative employees who always look ahead – into the future”, says Volker Schiffer, Managing Director of Fecken-Kirfel.
Tradition. Innovation. Future. – Our slogan for this anniversary points out where our routes are, what sustains us and what drives us. Let us take a look together at what these aspects mean for us.
Tradition – Continuity and reliability of an innovative family business
In 1870, the young engineer Johann Michel Joseph Fecken founded a small enterprise which, among other things, built machines for the strong cloth industry in Aachen. His father-in-law supported him generously with financial means. In return, his family name became part of the company name. “Fecken-Kirfel” stood for solidity and high quality right from the start. The excellent reputation made the following owners stick to the company name Fecken-Kirfel until today.
In 1918, Hermann Schiffler joined the company as a new owner. With his wife Anna, he laid the foundations for the family business, which Fecken-Kirfel has been for more than 100 years now. From 1969 their sons Helmut, Rudolf and Robert continued to run the company. Unfortunately, Robert Schiffler passed away in 2000 and his brother Helmut in 2019. For years the third generation of the Schiffler family with Dagmar Schiffler, Claus Schiffler, Jutta Rollinger and Christa Rübben together with Rudolf Schiffler have been setting essential impulses in the strategic orientation and development of Fecken-Kirfel. With their moral concept, the Schiffler family shapes the spirit of our company. Customers and employees can rely on this. The spirit, combined with a sense of responsibility, leadership competence and decision-making ability is lived at all levels of the company. That’s why at Fecken-Kirfel we take decisions quickly and flexibly. At the same time our decisions are always long-term and strategically oriented, keeping the spirit of a future-oriented company.
Innovation – always one step ahead in technology
From the start, the Schiffler family had the right touch. They steered the company confidently through eventful times. They always managed to set the right course. Since the 1950s, Fecken-Kirfel has been a global pioneer and trailblazer in the development and production of splitting and cutting machines for the plastics, rubber and cork industry. Without our engineers‘ pioneering spirit, many things in daily life wouldn’t be conceivable today, for which we have developed machines together with our customers over the past decades. We have a longtime partnership with many of our customers. In the year of our 150th anniversary we therefore would like to express our special thanks to our customers who have always been given us impulses and valuable feedback.
We are very proud of the fact that all FK machines and components are exclusively developed and produced in our plant in Aachen. We are and will remain closely linked to our location on Prager Ring and many of our suppliers also come from the region. With the high in-house production rate of more than 90 percent, we permanently ensure safe jobs in Aachen.
To maintain our leading role we invest continuously. This enables us to manufacture most of the components required to build a cutting machine at our site in Aachen. In this way we make sure that high-quality components are produced quickly and flexibly and that the supply of spare parts is guaranteed for many years.
"With a worldwide export share of more than 90 percent to all five continents, there is hardly a country where our machines are not used in production," says Schiffer.
Future – Well prepared for any challenge
We are there for you – our customers! Also in the future and even in these hard times for all of us. Our employees are „on site” and support you to the best of their ability. We will of course maintain our production, so that we can continue to supply you with spare parts and machines quickly and efficiently. We have increasingly stored components that we do not manufacture ourselves in order to avoid possible supply bottlenecks.
As soon as the travel restrictions will have been canceled we will of course help you again on the spot – in your facilities.
Our foresight remains optimistic. We have the strength, the will and the experience to emerge strengthened from this difficult time. At the same time we remain true to our strategy concentrating on our core business, „cutting“, in order to remain a technological and qualitative leader in the future. Furthermore we profit from these times to further develop our machines.
We look forward to continuing the individual support of our customers with our solution-oriented, forward-looking technologies and we feel confident to always find the suitable solution for you. We currently optimize our production processes and internal workflows. The long-term satisfaction of our customers is and remains the objective of our work and activities.
Our employees play a big role in our technology and quality leadership. In their own demands to give nothing less than the best every day, the high sense of responsibility towards you – our customers – is evident. This is what the Schiffler family stands for since more than 100 years. The FK management and the staff will continue to do everything to be your reliable partner in the future.
