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Doepke Schaltgeräte GmbH & Co. KG
Stellmacherstr. 11
26506 Norden
Germany
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Innovation and Reliability the Recipe for Success 50 Years of Doepke Switching Devices
Doepke is an active and highly regarded supplier of electric switching devices throughout the world. The main premises of the Doepke Schaltgeräte GmbH & Co.KG. are situated in the industrial park of Norden, a city in Northern Germany.
The company which today trades in 50 countries grew out of very modest beginnings. When the engineer August-Wilhelm Engels and salesman Franz Doepke founded the firm on 1 January 1956, they were armed with little more than a winning idea: they wanted to develop and produce residual current circuit breakers. These are devices designed to protect man and beast against dangerous touch voltages.
“You can quite rightly say that Franz Doepke and August Wilhelm Engels were pioneers in this field,” explains Joachim Hagemann, since 1995 one of the firms two managing directors. “Doepke were among the inventors of this technology, which was originally a purely German development. Now it has spread worldwide. A modern electrical installation without a residual current circuit breaker is almost unthinkable in the present day. And Doepke is the producer with the widest range of products on offer, both in Germany and on the international market.”
In those early days residual current circuit breakers were virgin territory technically speaking. This made the marketing of these devices all the harder during the first years. The firm’s two founders began by driving the length and breadth of Germany in order to sell their devices.
Within just a few years the firm had grown to such an extent that Doepke moved from one larger premises to another. The company acquired the present site in 1976, becoming the first firm in the new industrial park. With a total area of 10,000 square meters there has, since that time, been ample space available for large production plant as well as new development work.
The company took a major step forward at the end of the ’70s, in both technical and marketing terms, with the appointments of today’s majority shareholders and managing directors: Joachim Hagemann as the marketing director and Manfred Schmidt as head of development. The number of employees continued to grow steadily throughout the years that followed, from an original workforce of 25 to more than 200. And today Doepke’s employees are no longer based just in Norden: in 1992 the firm built a second production site at Bickenriede in Thuringia. This is where the company’s miniature circuit breakers are assembled. There are also foreign subsidiaries in England and Dubai, as well as a third production line in Hungary employing 60 people.
The company’s range of products and services has likewise grown over the years. In addition to residual current circuit breakers, Doepke has also developed and now markets miniature
p.t.o.
page 2: 50 Years of Doepke Switching Devices
circuit breakers and all the necessary components used in modern installations in house-building and in commercial premises. These include, for example, residual current control devices, RCCB/MCB combinations, DIN-rail devices, time switches, twilight switches, float switches and pressure switches. In addition, there are two systems for building automation. Over the past few years the firm has also been active in a new field of security technology: biometric access control. The system offered by Doepke ascertains at the touch of a finger whether a person is authorized to enter a building or not. “The finger is the key,” as Doepke so aptly put it.
From a manufacturer that initially focussed almost all its attention on the German market, Doepke has expanded over the years into an international concern. In addition to the 15 agencies in Germany, there are now more than 30 outlets abroad. In total, Doepke products are being marketed in more than 50 countries. They are also regularly represented at more than 20 regional and international fairs and exhibitions. In Germany, for example, the Norden concern regularly occupies a large stand at Light+Building fair in Frankfurt. And international exhibitions take Doepke to such places as France, Holland, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, the Czech Republic and the Ukraine, as well as to Brazil, Singapore, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
“From the original concept to the finished product Doepke offer its solutions all from the one hand,” explains Andreas Müller, Doepke’s sales and marketing director. “We are continually working to improve and develop yet further the products we offer, and we cultivate fair, reliable and long-lasting partnerships with our customers and suppliers.” These close partnerships and high levels of customer satisfaction are due in part to the firm’s training programme. According to Müller, Doepke organises about 500 events a year introducing its new products and systems. Some are held in the company’s own in-house training facilities; others at venues elsewhere. Those who attend include not only the firm’s own employees – both internal and external – but also wholesalers, designers and fitters. Members of the company’s agencies and subsidiaries are also active in arranging external seminars in the premises of trade associations and electrical wholesalers. In this way Doepke reaches many thousand of installers every year.
“Our partner companies and end customers can always rely on the high quality and perfect interplay of our components,” managing director Manfred Schmidt stresses. “All in-house departments play their part to ensure that this is so: from the development stage, construction and tooling, pressroom, turning workshop and injection moulding, trip elements and electronic assemblies, right up to final fitting and testing.”
“Innovation a Tradition” is the motto that Doepke has chosen for the firm’s anniversary. Joachim Hagemann explains why: “We are proud to be able to look back on such a long company history, and to know that today Doepke has established a worldwide reputation as the absolute specialist in residual current circuit breakers. For this we have not only the firm’s founders to thank, but also our employees who continue, as ever, to contribute to the firm’s success and future development by their innovation and enterprise.” Just as they have done for the past 50 years.
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