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Festo celebrates its centenary — 100 years in motion!

Posted on 01 Feb 2025. Edited by: Tony Miles. Read 435 times.
Festo celebrates its centenary — 100 years in motion!The management board of Festo SE in its anniversary year

Creating added value for customers through innovation has been the driving force behind Festo from the very beginning and remains the key to the success of the family-owned business. With its constant determination to make people’s work easier and thus increase efficiency, Festo has shaped an entire era of industrial production. Today, the company is a global player and a front runner in automation technology, as well as a world leader in technical education and training. Festo’s anniversary will be celebrated with employees, customers, and partners worldwide throughout 2025.

From the very beginning, Festo has focused on innovation, responsibility, and the future, and the company says that it is its people that still make all the difference. ‘Festo is the work of many hands’ — this saying of the company’s founder Gottlieb Stoll is still the guiding principle for management and staff worldwide. In 1925, he and Albert Fezer founded the company Fezer & Stoll for woodworking machines in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. Albert Fezer left the company shortly afterwards, and Gottlieb Stoll forged ahead on his own.

The second generation of owners laid the foundation for the company as it is now. Dr h. c. Kurt Stoll brought the idea of pneumatics from the USA to Germany in 1950 and, as a pioneer in his father’s company, developed it further. This marked the start of pneumatics at Festo and paved the way for its use in factory automation.

Festo,100 years, pic 3Internationalisation played a vital role in the ongoing development of Festo. Dr Wilfried Stoll focused on international markets and establishing national companies.

In 2000, the owners separated the power tools division from the rest of the company and established it as an independent company under the name Festool GmbH.

Lifelong learning is firmly rooted in the corporate culture at Festo. This is because it believes that successful companies need people who understand, develop, and can apply technologies. Training and developing competencies are thus fundamental success factors for a flourishing workforce. That is why Festo Didactic was established as a worldwide, independent division in 1965.

The inventive spirit of Dr Wilfried Stoll and Dr h. c. Kurt Stoll, their holistic thinking and approach, and their positive customer-oriented perspective have had a lasting impact on the company. Today, Festo is one of the leading automation companies worldwide and, with Festo Didactic, the market leader in technical education and training.

Thomas Böck, member of the management board at Festo, said: “In 2025, we want to say thank you to our customers, partners, and employees and celebrate this unforgettable anniversary with them.”

Anniversary activities will take place throughout the year, both in Germany and in the more than 60 Festo companies worldwide — with ‘thankyou’ parties for employees, school days for the young talents of tomorrow, customer events, and press events. For representatives of the press and visitors who are enthusiastic about technology, the world’s leading industrial fair, the Hannover Messe, which takes place 31 March to 4 April, will have a special highlight in store.

Mr Böck said: “The project is still top secret. What we can say is that it showcases our wide range of skills, our broad expertise, our passion for innovation, and our aspiration to make the impossible possible.”

Festo 100 years, pic 2The Hannover Messe will be a strong start, and that momentum will continue throughout the year. There will be, for example, worldwide ‘Innovation Days’, where Festo will use a new format to share future trends, technologies, and innovations with customers and partners. Mr Böck continued: “In our centenary year, we are very much looking to the future since we see it as our responsibility to use our innovations in automation and technical education to help solve the most pressing challenges facing industry and society, and to play a key role in driving industrial transformation as a solution provider.”

In the future, topics such as digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI), biologisation, and the circular economy will give automation another boost and, in addition, inspire future generations. Festo will be making a considerable contribution to moving these developments forward.

The anniversary year will also be the kick-off for an ongoing company-wide initiative to strengthen Festo’s guiding principle of social responsibility for sustainable development. Mr Böck added: “Our Corporate Citizenship Programme underscores our belief that companies should not only pursue economic goals, but also play a significant part in society.”

As part of the programme, all 20,000 employees worldwide can spend one day working on a charitable initiative. Mr Böck concluded: “This anniversary is not only a cause for celebration, but also a reminder of what is possible with solidarity, trust, passion, quality, and innovation. Together, we can look ahead with confidence to a promising future.”