voit sporting goods company voith gmbh type gmbh 100 % family owned industry industrial machinery automotive industry mechanical engineering founded 1867 founder johann m tthaus voith headquarters heidenheim an der brenz germany area served worldwide key people dr. hubert lienhard president and ceo products power transmission and paper processing units primarily involving gears and torque converters revenue 5.34 billion 2013 14 operating income 191 million 2013 14 profit 41 million 2013 14 number of employees 39 302 1 2013 14 divisions voith turbo voith hydro voith paper website voith.com the voith gmbh which is headquartered in germany is a family run multinational corporation in the mechanical engineering sector with worldwide operations . the voith corporate group is led by the voith gmbh headquarters in heidenheim located in the german state of baden w rttemberg . here the headquarters serves as a management holding with the executive board establishing general business strategies taking overall responsibility for the groups operations and providing support to the group s affiliate companies . the voith gmbh has around 39 302 employees worldwide with 14 434 working in germany . for the 2013 14 business year the consolidated group had revenues of 5.34 billion profits of 41 million and a new order volume of 5.58 billion . contents 1 company history 1.1 beginnings 1.2 turbine production 1.3 voith drive technology 1.4 internationalization 2 corporate organization 2.1 voith hydro 2.2 voith industrial services 2.3 voith paper 2.4 voith turbo 3 the voith family 4 management 4.1 current corporate board of management 5 see also 6 references 7 external links company history edit beginnings edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message the voith gmbh began as a small craftsman s workshop in the former kingdom of w rttemberg . in 1825 johann matth us voith took over this workshop from his father johannes which employed five craftsmen and made tooling and spare parts for local mills . the same site used by the original workshop is now the home of the voith gmbh headquarters . in the mid 19th century johann matth us voith began developing machinery for spinning mills wool re processing and printing presses . in 1848 he began working with the heidenheim paper producer heinrich voelter 1817 1887 with the common goal of mass producing paper . at that time series production of paper had failed due to the lack of rag fiber which was used as the raw material . wood however being a plentiful renewable resource was seen as an alternative . the very first patent for producing paper from wood pulp was awarded to heinrich voelter and friedrich gottlob keller in 1846 . johann matth us voith studied that patent and then dramatically improved keller s design . citation needed as a result the first raffineur wood pulp refiner was born in 1859 a machine that significantly refined raw wood pulp and therefore greatly improved the quality of paper . turbine production edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message in 1867 johann matth us voith transferred control of the company to his son friedrich which had 30 employees . in that same year friedrich voith officially registered the company in the local trading register for the first time under the name maschinenfabrik engineering works j. m. voith . in 1869 voith received his first patent for a wood grinder . this wood grinder was a major step forward for paper mills allowing them to use economical renewable cellulose fiber while improving paper quality and setting the cornerstone for modern newspaper publishing . in 1881 voith delivered the first complete paper making machine to raithelhuber bezner & cie in gemmrigheim germany . voith s invention had opened an entirely new market and a surge in new orders helped his company to rapidly expand . by the mid 1890s voith machines were available for every stage of the paper making process . during the same timeframe voith began working on turbines . by 1879 the first voith turbine regulator had been built based on the designs from adolf pfarr and it proved to be a decisive step for the generation of electricity through the force of water . by 1890 voith had even begun deliveries of a high pressure open jet turbine . and in the same year friedrich voith was named by king karl i of w rttemberg to join his council of commercial advisors in recognition of his successful business achievements . at the company s 25th anniversary in 1892 330 people were employed by voith and it was one of the largest companies in the kingdom of w rttemberg . the first voith subsidiary located in st. p lten austria was founded in 1903 and in that same year voith received the largest order in its history voith was to build the world s largest water turbines having 12 000 horsepower 8 948 kw for the robert moses niagara hydroelectric power station . voith drive technology edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message in 1911 voith built the fastest and widest machine of its time for reel fed printing papers at its plant in st. p lten austria . shortly thereafter in 1913 friedrich voith died and left behind a company with 3 000 employees and a leading position in the paper as well as energy markets . his three sons then shared the company s management responsibilities walther took charge of the st. p lten plant hermann managed the commercial affairs in the main facility in heidenheim and hanns headed the technical department . after world war i the three brothers decided to expand the company and to concentrate on drive technologies . by 1922 voith had begun building transmission gear assemblies based on its fluid dynamics know how gained from previous turbine projects . this turned out to be yet another breakthrough which was achieved with the aid of hermann f ttinger and his research on hydrodynamic energy transfers . in that same year the first kaplan turbine was produced by voith being named for its inventor viktor kaplan . by 1929 the first voith hydrodynamic couplings based on the f ttinger principle were in use at the herdecke pumped storage hydropower station . thereafter similar transmissions for road and rail vehicles were developed . at the same time the company became known for the hydrodynamic drives and transmissions that it supplied to industrial production facilities . in addition voith launched a new product the voith schneider propeller vsp for commercial vessels . this new marine drive could significantly improve the manoeuvrability of a ship being invented by the vienna engineer ernst schneider and enhanced by voith . after successful sea trials on the test boat torqueo in 1937 the first voith schneider propellers were put into operation in the narrow canals of venice italy . during the 1937 world fair in paris voith was awarded the grand prize three times for its exhibition of voith schneider propellers and voith turbo transmissions . a year later two of paris fire fighting boats started operating with the new vsp system . following the death of hermann voith hanns voith led the company in 1942 . later on 24 april 1945 when american troops occupied heidenheim it was hanns voith who personally surrendered the city to the us army . during world war ii 600 of the company s 4 000 employees had either been killed or were missing . internationalization edit this section needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . april 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message following world war ii hannes voith and hugo rupf served as executive board chairman . the company s first post war delivery was a voith turbine for norway in 1947 . in 1949 eight voith schneider propellers went to the united africa company 46 voith turbo transmissions were shipped to brazil and in 1951 a new paper making machine was delivered to the netherlands . at the same time voith released its new triple converter transmission for motorised railcars and its diwa bus transmissions . in 1953 voith produced europe s fastest newsprint paper machine for the feldm hle ag running at speeds of 600 metres min and producing up to 200 tons of newsprint each day . at the 1958 world s fair in brussels voith was awarded a gold medal for developing the first turbo transmission for the diesel hydraulic locomotives of the deutsche bundesbahn german railways . throughout the 1960s voith expanded internationally . in 1962 voith participated on europe s largest pumped storage hydroelectric power station the vianden pumped storage plant in vianden luxembourg by supplying two spiral turbines four storage pumps and two pump turbines . for years later voith set another record by delivering the widest newsprint machine in the world to sweden . between 1962 and 1966 the company also made major investments in the indian company utkal machinery ltd. and the spanish company talleres de tolosa . voith also took over the tooling and paper machine manufacturer d rries as well as founding new sales offices in great britain and france . in addition a new subsidiary was founded in brazil in 1964 the voith s.a. in s o paulo . in the 1970s voith developed its centrimatic clutch and the r130 retarder for buses and utility vehicles . in the usa voith founded a subsidiary in appleton wisconsin in 1974 and also became the major shareholder of morden machines in portland oregon . two years later voith founded its first japanese subsidiary . following the death of hanns voith hugo rupf became the company s managing director in 1971 and in 1973 he became the chairman of the board of directors . following the acquisition of appleton mills usa in 1983 voith entered the market for paper machine clothing . in addition voith took over the hydropower operations of the us market leader allis chalmers in york pennsylvania . within a few years voith expanded its us workforce from 200 to 1 300 . in 1985 voith also entered india establishing a production plant in hyderabad . in the 1990s voith began to expand its operations in the far east concentrating on china . in 1994 voith supplied the turbines for the world s largest pumped storage hydroelectric power station at guangzhou ii . also two years later voith received the contract to build the world s largest fine paper machine in dagang . in kunshan and liaoyang china the company also opened new production plants in 1996 . under the leadership of michael rogowski who had been voith s spokesman since 1986 the company was reorganised and it became a management holding with independently operating commercial sectors . in the following years voith s technical masterpieces were the introduction of the r115 integrated retarder in 1988 and the commissioning of the largest european deinking facility in schongau in 1989 . in 1994 voith and the swiss company sulzer merged their technical paper production activities and in 1999 voith acquired the technical papermaking operations of the british company scapa . the next year the voith siemens hydro power generation was founded as a joint venture between the two international leaders in turbine and generator technologies . in 2000 voith s leadership also