EDAG 40 Year Chronicle

EDAG – 40 YEARS COMPANY HISTORy 1969 – 2009 ”If you don‘t know where you come from, then you don‘t know who you are.“ 4 6 FOREWORD BY THE MANAGEMENT This year, along with our staff and customers, we are able to look back on 40 years of EDAG history. In these four decades, the company has developed from a small design office with a staff of four into the largest independent partner to the international mobility industry. Today, we have over 5,600 employees working on complete developments for vehicles and production facilities, plant construction and low-volume production for the automotive, aerospace and rail industries, and for providers of regenerative energies. Worldwide, at over 35 locations, on five continents. An impressive performance, and one which is owed not just to enterprising foresight of the company‘s founders, but above all to the flexibility and commitment of our employees. A very big thank you to all of you for the work you have put in. You have taken to heart and put into practice the EDAG values of tradition, innovation, team spirit and a cooperative relationship with our customers, thus contributing to the success of the EDAG brand. „If you don‘t know where you come from, then you don‘t know who you are.“ True to this motto, our 40-year anniversary has prompted us to summarise some of the significant milestones of the last four decades, and issue this account of our development and achievements. The Management Jörg Ohlsen, CEO Manfred Hahl, COO Rainer Bauer, CFO 1969 Eckard Design was founded by Horst Eckard in Groß-Zimmern near Darmstadt on 1st February 1969, at which time it was known as „Kon- struktionsbüro Horst Eckard“. The original members of staff were Egon Schnell, Jordi Arau and Karl-Heinz Pfuhl. On 1st July of the same year, Mr Ewald Vollmer, Spokesman of the Board of EDAG Engineering + Design AG until March 2002, joined the young company. Further partners joined in September, namely Dieter Hinz, Franz Frohnapfel and Peter Heil. The Ford works in Cologne were Eckard Design‘s first customer. True to the philosophy - still valid today - „always close to the customers, where- ver they are“, the first office was in Cologne. At the end of this first year, the second car manufacturer was acquired as a customer: BMW. At that time, the company employed 8 people. 4 5 1970 By now, the team in Munich had grown to seven. Eckard Design opened our company‘s headquarters, an office at Stein- weg 26 in Fulda. The advantages to a German company working in the field of automotive development of having Fulda as its central office applied then, in the same way they still do now: none of the German car manufacturers is more than 300 km away from the head office. Sadly, this year saw the loss of two valued employees, Thomas Stickel and Klaus Möller, who died in a car accident on their way to work at the Cologne office on 22nd June 1970. We would like to take this opportunity to honour their memory. 1971 First body design order from Ford for our Cologne office. 1972 The new office in Steinau near Fulda was completed in February. Working at the weekends, Eckard Design renovated the old schoolhouse, to create the largest office space so far - 150 m². By the end of the year, there were already 20 employees working in Stei- nau. For the first time ever, total turnover exceeded DM 2 million. 1973 A new customer was acquired in the shape of Volkswagen. Turnover rose to above DM 3.3 million. On 1.9.1973, Mr Willi Schwarz, Eckard Design‘s first apprentice, started his career as an apprentice draughtsman. Mr Schwarz still works for our company, and is today a departmental manager in body design. 1974 This year, Eckard Design changed both its legal form and name, be- coming „Eckard Design GbR“. The partners were Horst Eckard, Ewald Vollmer, Franz Frohnapfel, Dieter Hinz and Peter Heil. Its constant expansion meant the company had to move from its premises in Steinau to new offices at Petersberger Str. 24-26 in Fulda (close to the Osthessen-Center). By now, the company had a workforce of over 50. 6 7 Eckard Design GbR acquired an interest in FFT, a manufacturing company located in Mücke. 1975 Opel joined the ranks of our customers this year, placing an order for welding technology. 1976 Eckard Design GbR‘s Fulda office executed a major order for Karmann, Osnabrück - the first order to carry a penalty in the event of delayed de- livery. The staff applied themselves to the job with such enthusiasm that the order was completed well ahead of time, and Karmann sent a thank you letter in recognition. Back then, Eckard Design was already using a flexible working time model. Customers‘ orders and project deadlines were, and still are, given top priority and adhered to. A record is kept of any extra hours worked, and the employee can then decide whether to take time off in lieu, or have the overtime paid. A new office was established in Heidenheim. 1977 Another new customer was acquired, this time Audi, and Eckard Design GbR began work at Audi‘s premises. Further customers at the time were Ford, BMW, VW, Roth-Electric, KUKA, Voith and FFT. 1978 Contact with Audi was intensified, making it necessary to move into a new 150 m² office in Ingolstadt. Mr. G. Schäffer was the office manager. By the middle of August, 10 employees were already working there. 1979 At the beginning of the second quarter, Eckard Design GbR opened a new office in the „Schillerteichzentrum“ in Wolfsburg. Mr Wolfgang Weidemann was the office manager. 8 9 Due to the fact that more and more communication problems were occurring, we decided to hold our first management seminar. This proved to be a good investment. 1980 As a result of the seminar held in 1979, Eckard Design GbR began to hold conferences in which all office managers and their deputies participated. On 1.1.1980, the company moved into the new 425 m² office in the building belonging to the Fulda company Flamme. It was here that, in February, the first body development order was executed for Daimler-Benz. Additional office space was rented in Cologne. 1981 For the first time ever, our turnover figures exceeded DM 20 million. As more space was needed in Munich, the company moved to premises close to today‘s FIZ (BMW‘s research and development centre). 1982 From April on, the Fulda office was enlarged by renting a further 300 m² from Flamme. In addition, a 3D measuring machine was purchased for the Ingolstadt branch. The entire building there was bought in August. 1983 As Audi had decided to use CADDS, the CV-Computervision CAD system, Eckard Design GbR bought its first CAD monitors with their own compu- ter for the Ingolstadt / Gaimersheim branch this year. On 1st April, construction work started on the new office in the Rees- bergstraße in Fulda-Lehnerz. The company had moved in by the end of December. „Eckard-Design-Entwicklungs GmbH“ was founded for our branches in Munich and Ingolstadt/Gaimersheim this year. E. Schnell, H. Linder, I. Lüers and Z. Piotrowski were all partners in this new company. 10 11 1984 The new building in the Reesbergstraße was officially opened by the Reverend Famula on 7.7.1984, and a document was walled in with the foundation stone. In the meantime, Eckard Design by now employed over 250 people. There were 69 new appointments this year alone. Due to a shortage of space in Cologne, larger offices were taken close to Ford. Federal President, Carl Carstens, conferred a distinction on Eckard Design for excellence in the field of professional training. 1985 This year saw the installation of the first CAD system in Fulda. Once the staff had been trained to use the system, Eckard Design GbR was awarded a major order by Ford. After 15 years, Eckard Design GbR received its first body design order from Opel. 76 new employees joined the company in 1985. The office in Ingolstadt was modified, and a new wing added. To ensure an international presence, an office was opened in Witham, England, and manned by a number of English colleagues from the Wolfsburg office. Adrian Pringle was the first office manager. 1986 The strong growth rate continued in 1986. With 79 new members of staff, the number of new appointments was at an all-time high. The esta- blishment of an experimental shop in Fulda heralded the start of prototype construction activities. Our first employee in this field was Mr Adolf Hohmann. We would like to pay tribute to Mr Hohmann, who has since died. On 1.4.1986, Herrmann and Walter Göbel joined the company, and, together with Mr Hohmann formed the first prototype construction team. Further premises were rented in Munich. In the Fulda office, the new electrics department came into being, headed by Mr Thiesen. 1987 At the beginning of this year, the second section of the building in the Reesbergstraße in Fulda was completed, and the experimental shop inte- grated in the basement of the new building. Autolatina (Ford/VW) awarded the Ingolstadt office a major order, which was the first development order that we carried out completely in CAD. The new office in the Schweriner Straße in Wolfsburg was completed and moved into. This was the year in which Eckard Design GbR received its first major order from Opel. 12 13 A branch office was founded in Barcelona, Spain, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Eckard Design.

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