During the year 1949, the Liebherr family business was created by Hans Liebherr. His first claim to fame was the success of his affordable and easy-to-assemble mobile tower crane. It was upon this invention that the foundation of the company flourished under. Today, Liebherr has grown to become one of the world's leading manufacturers of construction machines. The company has also gained the reputation of being the acknowledged supplier of user-oriented technically innovative products and services in different fields. The company has now become a "Group" working in every continent with more than 130 companies and more than 35,000 employees all around the globe.
To be able to guarantee a manageable operating size, the Liebherr Group has been divided into different company units. These units have been designed to operate independently. This specific set up enables the company the ability to stay in tune with worldwide competition and be flexible to market signals. As well, having so many individual company units also keeps customer service running at an optimum level and ensures customer proximity.
Liebherr has instituted the divisional control companies to be able to deal with the management operations of sales and production for the individual product segments. The Liebherr Group presently has 10 different product divisions.
Liebherr-International AG is the Liebherr Group's holding company. They are located in Bulle, Switzerland and are completely owned by members of the Liebherr family. Currently, the family business is being managed in the second generation by Dr. H.C. Isolde Liebherr and her brother Dr. H.C. Willi Liebherr. Since the year 2012, some of the active individual divisions have been represented by 3rd generation members of the family including: Patricia Ruf, Stefanie Wohlfarth, Jan Liebherr and Sophie Albrecht. These family members have been working hard together to help set up the course of the family business in the future. They are staying on top of residential buildings and large-scale industrial projects all over the world.
Hans Liebherr began to build his company during 1949, in a small town called Kirchdorf in southern Germany. Kirchdorf, currently supports among Liebherr's 20 manufacturing locations. They can average a yearly output of about 2800 wheeled excavators and employ over 1400 people in that specific workforce. The company has enjoyed diversity and immense growth ever since it first started. The Liebherr Group continues to remain very dedicated to implementing and engineering innovative designs. They have earned a successful and positive place within the material handling business.