societas europaea industry conglomerate founded 1849 founder carl johann freudenberg headquarters weinheim baden wuerttemberg germany area served worldwide key people dr. mohsen sohi ceo products household and other products revenue 7.039 billion 2014 1 net income 478 million 2014 number of employees 40 456 2014 website www.freudenberg.com the freudenberg group is a german family owned diversified group of companies whose products include housewares and cleaning products automobile parts textiles building materials and telecommunications . its headquarters are in weinheim baden w rttemberg and it has production facilities and markets in europe asia africa australia and the united states . the parent company was founded in 1849 as a producer of leather goods . contents 1 history 2 ownership and philosophy 3 brands 4 philanthropy 5 references 6 sources 7 external links history edit the company was founded in 1849 by carl johann freudenberg the son of a wine merchant 2 and his partner heinrich christoph heintze ; the two took over a tannery at weinheim . for the next 80 years the company produced leather products exclusively . 3 4 hurt by the worldwide economic depression that began in 1929 and by shortages during world war ii it diversified into seals for motors made first of leather and later of artificial rubber the simmerring named for an engineer called walther simmer 5 which led to fabrics and to cleaning fabrics and tools when it was noted that the company s cleaning ladies were using discarded scraps of the experimental fabrics . 3 4 vileda from german wie leder like leather window cleaning cloths were first marketed in 1948 . 6 in the mid 1990s the company reorganized with a highly decentralized organizational structure it has 16 divisions or areas of business incorporating 430 independent units . 4 7 8 three quarters of its business is as a supplier to other companies . 9 in 2004 freudenberg had employees in 43 countries . 3 10 11 recently it has focused attention on markets in china and japan ; for example it provided the floor coverings for the shanghai metro stations . 12 in 2002 the company closed its last leather tannery marking the effective end of the leather industry in germany . 4 however today vileda is a market leader in europe . 13 all german cars contain parts made by another freudenberg subsidiary and german made outdoor clothing contains fibers made by yet another . 4 almost all major airports have flooring made by another freudenberg subsidiary . 14 in 2015 the group was a 7 5 billion euro business with more than 40 000 employees approximately 11 000 in germany . revenues rose from 7 billion euros in 2014 to 7.572 billion in 2015 . 4 ownership and philosophy edit freudenberg remains a family owned concern structured as a kommanditgesellschaft limited partnership jointly held by descendants of the founder some 300 in 2011 . 4 15 16 stock can not be sold to non family members and must be surrendered by in laws upon divorce . 17 no stockholder holds more than 2 % ownership . 18 an annual three day general meeting 4 elects the board of partners which consists of 7 to 13 members of whom the majority must be freudenberg family members . 19 20 the divisions are managed by a management board who need not be family members . 21 stockholders receive a semi annual family newsletter and have access to an owners intranet . a select few are on the wine commission which oversees the private freudenberg vineyards . 12 these vineyards are the largest in the bergstra e region producing 60 000 bottles of wine annually . 9 wolfram freudenberg a fifth generation family member who formerly headed the stuttgart stock exchange was chairman of the board of partners from 2005 to 2014 succeeding reinhart freudenberg who stepped down for reasons of age . 5 22 in 2014 he was succeeded by martin wentzler also a fifth generation family member . 23 the spokesperson of the management board is mohsen sohi ; 24 his predecessor peter bettermann formerly head of german bp in 1997 became the first non family member to run the company . 4 5 12 15 18 in the late 1930s the company developed operating principles that include broad diversification in both products and markets spreading of risk long term thinking and the maintenance of an equity ratio of at least 40 % and avoidance of large acquisitions while favoring small ones . 4 6 25 the company would rather acquire a handful of interesting smaller enterprises every year than a large company that might endanger the company philosophy . 26 in each area of activity the company operates only where it can be first or second in the market ; for example it sells motor seals worldwide but vileda mops only in europe . 26 brands edit brands listed on the company s website 27 are chem trend corteco evolon ecozero fit freudenberg sealing technologies helixmark kl ber lubrication lutradur lutraflor lutrasil micronair oks pellon simrit terbond texbond soundtex surtec trelleborgvibracoustic vildona vileda viledon vilene vilmed freudenberg household products division also sells products under the o cedar brand name in the us . 28 philanthropy edit the freudenberg group owns the schau und sichtungsgarten hermannshof a public botanical garden in weinheim which opened in 1983 and is jointly operated with the town . 9 29 30 31 the freudenberg stiftung was founded in 1984 and is endowed with stock in the parent company . it has a broad mandate to promote science the humanities and education as well as strengthening peaceful coexistence in society and culture and focuses particularly on assistance to and democratic education of young people primarily in germany . 32 references edit facts and figures freudenberg.com retrieved 18 june 2014 . johannes hucke weingut carl freudenberg weinheim in bergstra e weinlesebuch die winzer der badischen und der hessischen bergstrasse von s d nach nord ; mit kulinarischen anekdotischen und sogar landeskundlichen hinweisen regio guide 6 karlsruhe info 2009 isbn 978 3 88190 504 6 pp. 191 95 p. 195 german a b c martin scheele familie freudenberg die wischmopp million re manager magazin 22 january 2004 german a b c d e f g h i j dietmar h. lamparter von der kunst des h utens freudenberg oder wie aus einer kleinen gerberei ein breit aufgestellter industriekonzern wurde die zeit 27 february 2011 german a b c christian sywottek das matroschka prinzip interview with wolfram freudenberg brand eins october 2008 german a b tina grant international directory of company histories gale virtual reference library volume 41 detroit st. james 2001 isbn 978 1 55862 682 9 p. 171 . as of april 2013 update under business groups the company lists the following four business areas each of which incorporates several business groups seals and vibration control technology ; nonwovens and filtration ; household products ; specialties and others . see also company structure freudenberg group . in 2008 434 subsidiary companies sywottek cited in j rn hendrich block long term orientation of family firms an investigation of r & d investments downsizing practices and executive pay thesis technical university of munich wiesbaden gabler 2009 p. 102 note 188 . a b c bolke behrens freudenberg gruppe bewahrt beharrlich den familiencharakter ein ganz unauff lliges weltunternehmen handelsblatt january 24 2005 p. 3 german 53 in 2008 according to sywottek . as of april 2013 update 58 countries freudenberg group retrieved 13 april 2013 . a b c scheele p. 3 . manfred von dworschak hygiene materie am falschen ort der spiegel 2 october 2000 german behrens p. 1 . a b scheele p. 2 . block p. 3 . block p. 4 . a b behrens p. 2 . company structure freudenberg group . company structure freudenberg & co. board of partners freudenberg group . company structure freudenberg & co. management board freudenberg group . freudenberg neue f hrung im gesellschafterausschuss manager magazin june 27 2005 german change in board of partners chair press release freudenberg group 1 july 2014 . management changes at freudenberg press release freudenberg group 29 june 2012 . corporate values guiding principles freudenberg group . a b heide neukirchen and brigitta palass familienunternehmen freudenberg gruppe manager magazin 22 march 2002 german the freudenberg brands freudenberg group retrieved 13 april 2013 . about o cedar o cedar.com retrieved 13 april 2013 . countess ursula dohna princess marianne sayn wittgenstein sayn and count philipp sch nborn private gardens of germany new york harmony 1986 isbn 978 0 517 56512 4 p. 122 . gardens illustrated 2002 n.p. . nachrichten garten und landschaft 112 2002 p. 44 german freudenberg foundation freudenberg group . sources edit carl freudenberg . 150 years of freudenberg how a family enterprise developed from a tannery into an internationally diversified enterprise . mannheim freudenberg 1999 . oclc 313963779 pia gerber . der lange weg der sozialen innovation wie stiftungen zum sozialen wandel im feld der bildungs und sozialpolitik beitragen k nnen eine fallstudie zur innovationskraft der freudenberg stiftung the long march of social innovation how charitable foundations can contribute towards social change in the fields of education and social policy a case study on the innovative vigor of the freudenberg foundation . opusculum 21 . berlin maecenata institut f r philanthropie und zivilgesellschaft november 2006 . oclc 643152814 google preview german external links edit official site in english authority control gnd 16031650 9 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title freudenberg group & oldid 740294877 categories manufacturing companies of germanycompanies established in 1849companies based in baden w rttembergconglomerate companies of germanysocietates europaeaeweinheim1849 establishments in badenhidden categories articles with german language external linksarticles containing potentially dated statements from april 2013all articles containing potentially dated statementsarticles containing german language textwikipedia articles with gnd identifiers navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages deutschfran aisitalianosvenska edit links this page was last modified on 20 september 2016 at 05 20 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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