STIHL Tirol 40 years of premium gardening tools made in Tyrol
Langkampfen, 22.02.2021
The garden equipment manufacturer and cordless tool specialist STIHL Tirol is celebrating its 40th anniversary on 26th February 2021. The company, which was founded as VIKING GmbH in Kufstein in 1981 and has been trading as STIHL Tirol since 2018, has developed over the past four decades to become an important STIHL production site for cordless products and one of the region's largest employers.
Nikolas Stihl, managing director of the Tyrolean location of the STIHL Group from 1993 to 2011 and today chairman of the STIHL supervisory and advisory board, expresses his congratulations: "The development of our Tyrolean location can quite rightly be described as a success story. What was once a regional manufacturer of gardening tools is now a veritable medium-sized company with an international business – excellently positioned, optimally equipped for the future and an integral and important part of the STIHL Group. Our wide range of garden tools makes us leaders in the European specialist trade and we are increasingly taking on the world market with our cordless products."
Clemens Schaller, managing director of STIHL Tirol since 2018, emphasises: "The fact that we are still on course for success, despite the current challenges posed by the corona pandemic, is primarily thanks to the excellent performance, commitment and loyalty of our now 700 employees in Langkampfen. Our 40th anniversary is something for us to be proud of, a fact that we are unfortunately unable to celebrate with a party this year."
The company was founded in 1981 – 28 people were employed at the time. The first product was a garden shredder. In 1984, the first line of lawn mowers developed in-house rolled off the assembly line. The lawn mower was to be the most important product in the range for a long time to come.
1992 was a milestone in the company's history. VIKING became a wholly owned subsidiary of the German STIHL Group, one of the world's leading manufacturers of chain saws and power tools. With the acquisition of the Tyrolean company, STIHL expanded its product range to include garden products. In 1993, Nikolas Stihl, the grandson of STIHL founder Andreas Stihl, joined the Tyrolean company and remained the managing director until 2011. The range of gardening tools was completely updated during this time and there was a rapid increase in sales and employee numbers. A consistent product portfolio policy combined with a strong network of STIHL specialist dealers was another guarantee of success for the company's development.
At the end of the 1990s, there were considerable leaps in sales and the Kufstein plant was bursting at the seams. As a result, the company moved to Langkampfen in 2001 and the company premises were expanded in three major stages in 2007, 2012 and 2019. Particular importance is placed on the focus of cordless tools at the Tyrolean site of the STIHL Group. Since 2010, there has been an increase in the manufacturing of numerous cordless tools from the STHIL Group, for example cordless chainsaws and hedge trimmers.
Today, STIHL Tirol produces a variety of cordless, petrol and electric garden products. These include lawn mowers, robotic mowers, ride-on mowers, garden shredders, lawn scarifiers, tillers, chainsaws, brushcutters, pole pruners, vacuum shredders, hedge trimmers, long-reach hedge trimmers, blowers, cut-off machines and special harvesters. In 2019, the company continued its steady and sustainable growth and generated a turnover of more than 456 million euros. This trend continued in 2020. Since many people spent more time at home due to contact and travel restrictions, more was invested in private gardens. This has seen the demand for cordless products and gardening tools made in Tyrol continue to rise in recent months.
Information about STIHL Tirol:
STIHL Tirol GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of the STIHL Group and is based in Langkampfen, Austria. Cordless products are produced at this site and STIHL Tirol is also a centre of excellence for ground-based gardening tools. In 2019, the company employed 639 people.
STIHL company profile:
The STIHL Group develops, manufactures and distributes motorised equipment for forestry, agriculture, landscape management, the building industry and private garden owners. The product range is supplemented with digital solutions and services. Products are generally distributed through specialist dealers – including 41 sales and marketing STIHL subsidiaries, around 120 importers and more than 53,000 specialist dealers in over 160 countries. STIHL manufactures products in seven countries worldwide: Germany, USA, Brazil, Switzerland, Austria, China and the Philippines. STIHL has been the best-selling chainsaw brand worldwide since 1971. The company was founded in 1926 and the corporate headquarters are in Waiblingen near Stuttgart, Germany. In 2019, STIHL had 16,722 employees worldwide and a turnover of € 3.93 billion.
(Images: STIHL Tirol, reprint free of charge)
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