Liebherr Ehingen Turns 50

February 20, 2019 - On February 22, 1969, Hans Liebherr founded Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH. (The parent company was by then 20 years old, having been founded in 1949 in Kirchdorf, Germany.)

Within the Liebherr Group, Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH operates as a divisional control company for mobile cranes that are used wherever loads have to be lifted and positioned with precision.

The company’s 3,600 employees produce about 1,800 cranes every year. The diverse product range includes forty types of cranes developed by about 300 engineers.

Ehingen manufactures two main product lines. One is wheeled mobile cranes (all-terrain, compact, truck, and rough-terrain). The other is crawler cranes with lattice or telescopic booms, the most powerful of which
is 787’5” high and can lift up to 3,300 U.S. tons.

The best-selling crane of Ehingen’s early years was the AUK 40T-60 truck crane. The company sold a total of 79 machines from 1969 to 1972. In contrast, today’s most popular crane made in Ehingen is the LTM 1030-2.1 two-axle telescopic boom mobile crane, with about 2,500 delivered.

The success factors, then and now, are the same for Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH, says the company: product performance, safety, and efficiency, with designs based on input received directly from customers.

Reliability is another key. “Ninety percent of all cranes ever built by us are still in use after decades,” says Christoph Kleiner, managing director sales of Liebherr-Werk Ehingen.

The company operates more than eighty service centers in more than 40 countries, and can deliver 95% of all spare parts worldwide within 24 hours.

“Fifty years of Liebherr in Ehingen are first and foremost 50 years of the commitment, willingness to perform and loyalty of our staff,” says Mario Trunzer, managing director administration. “Without their dedication and their ideas we would not have been able to develop so successfully.”