Ostfildern/Germany, 01/31/2013) Making partners out of competitors: On Jan. 1, 2013, Goldhofer Aktiengesellschaft of Memmingen, Germany, the top-quality supplier of transport equipment for heavy-duty and airport applications, took over the SCHOPF group, which is headquartered in Ostfildern near Stuttgart.The group includes SCHOPF Maschinenbau GmbH and SCHOPF ROFAN GmbH, which together have a workforce of about 160 employees.
“I am delighted to report that the SCHOPF Group’s partners, Dr. Hermann Brüggemann and Claus Haubeil, have decided to entrust to our care a corporation that is one of the global players in the international airport industry. We are very much aware of the responsibility that we have for the employees in Ostfildern. At the same time we offer them the opportunity to join us in further consolidating the group’s leading market position in the field of ground support equipment,” said Stefan Fuchs, CEO at Goldhofer Aktiengesellschaft, when signing the contract for the acquisition in Memmingen.
With regard to their outstanding market position resulting from the pooling of resources, the CEO said, “Goldhofer and SCHOPF are the perfect combination for quality ground support equipment for airports worldwide from a 'Made in Germany' double. In future we will be able to offer this market one-stop shopping, and that will make us even more attractive for our customers and enable us to cater even more for their specific needs."
"For me, the decision to sell our shares to Goldhofer Aktiengesellschaft is the ideal solution in terms of succession of ownership of the SCHOPF Group. I am very happy for our committed employees that we have been able to find a forward-looking strategic solution for our headquarters,” says Dr. Hermann Brüggemann, hitherto majority shareholder and Managing Director of the SCHOPF Group, and he continues, “Goldhofer was definitely our ideal choice of partner; it is a traditional medium-sized organization from the region that has the same values as SCHOPF. Goldhofer is not a corporation listed on the stock exchange but a company whose shares are all held by a foundation established by Karoline Goldhofer-Prützel. And like us, they attach great importance to human values, social responsibility and a sustainable business strategy.”
In addition to airport industry, Goldhofer and SCHOPF complement each other in other fields, too. With its heavy-duty modular trailer systems and low loader semi-trailers, Goldhofer is one of the world’s leading suppliers of heavy-load transport equipment. For its part, SCHOPF has a range of underground loaders that makes it one of the biggest suppliers of special vehicles for the mining and tunneling industry. They are deployed in a wide variety of mining operations: from iron ore, salt and coal to precious and industrial metals.
SCHOPF Maschinenbau GmbH /SCHOPF ROFAN GmbH
SCHOPF was founded in 1948. The company develops, develops, produces and sells special vehicles for civil aviation, military deployments and for the mining and tunneling industries.
SCHOPF supplies underground loaders to the mining and tunneling industry. The loaders are suitable for all materials over the widest range of bulk densities.
Its products for civil aviation and military deployment include a complete range of aircraft tractors with an operating weight of between 5,000 and 70,000 kg. They are capable of handling all sizes of aircraft. Container and pallet loaders as well as aircraft passenger stairs round off the SCHOPF product range.
In addition to its aircraft tractors, loaders and stairs, SCHOPF also offers a complete range of Rofan baggage, cargo and industrial tractors, which are available with Diesel, CNG/LPG, Standard Hybrid or PowerHybrid drives.
Goldhofer Aktiengesellschaft
Goldhofer is the world market leader for transport equipment in the fields of general and heavy-duty road transport, special transport vehicles and towbarless aircraft tractors. In the Goldhofer plant on some 100,000 m2 of grounds in Memmingen, more than 650 employees work on innovative transport solutions and produce perfectly engineered vehicles for payloads varying between 25 and 10,000 tons for demanding customers around the globe. The history of Goldhofer Aktiengesellschaft goes back over more than 300 years to 1705.
