Festo looks back on 100 years of history and to the future

Clear focus Festo looks back on 100 years of history and to the future

2025-01-22 Source: Festo | Translated by AI 3 min Reading Time

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From the very beginning, today's Festo has focused on innovation and responsibility for the future ...

Congratulations! Festo celebrates its 100th anniversary. The pneumatics pioneers from Esslingen am Neckar have not lost sight of certain guiding principles from the beginning ...(Image: Festo) — Congratulations! Festo celebrates its 100th anniversary. The pneumatics pioneers from Esslingen am Neckar have not lost sight of certain guiding principles from the beginning ...
(Image: Festo)

"Festo is the work of many hands!" This statement by founder Gottlieb Stoll is still influential for management and employees worldwide today, as it says on the company's 100th birthday. In 1925, together with Albert Fezer, he founded the company Fezer & Stoll in Esslingen am Neckar, which stood for woodworking machines. However, Fezer left the company after a short time. The shareholders of the second generation then laid the foundations for today's company. And Dr. h. c. Kurt Stoll brought the idea of pneumatics with him from the USA in 1950. As a pioneer in his father's company, he developed it further, which was the start of pneumatics expertise at Festo and thus laid the foundation for its use in factory automation.

Festo moves towards internationality

Internationalization ultimately played a central role in Festo's further corporate development. Dr. Wilfried Stoll focused on opening up international markets and establishing national subsidiaries. And in 2000, the owner family separated the power tools division from Festo as a unit and continued to run it as an independent company under the name Festool GmbH. Lifelong learning is firmly anchored in Festo's corporate culture. Successful companies need people who can understand, develop and apply technologies. Qualification and competence development are therefore elementary factors for the successful development of skilled workers. The independent Didactic division was established worldwide back in 1965. Festo is now one of the world's leading automation companies and, with Festo Didactic, the global market leader in technical training and further education.

It will be exciting at the Hannover Messe 2025 ...

Thomas Böck, CEO of Festo, comments on the anniversary: "We would like to say thank you in 2025 and celebrate an unforgettable anniversary with customers, partners and our employees." The anniversary activities will take place throughout the year, both at the German sites and at the more than 60 Festo companies worldwide. Thank-you parties for employees, school days for young talent, customer events and press events will be held as part of the celebrations. For representatives of the press and technology enthusiasts, the world's leading trade fair for industry, i.e. the Hannover Messe, will then have a special highlight in store. Böck: "The project is still a secret. But it shows our wide range of skills, our broad expertise, our enthusiasm for innovation and our ambition to make the impossible possible."

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