Wurth Australia – A member of the Wurth Group
Standing alongside 400+ international companies, Wurth Australia is part of the global operating Wurth Group. Being known as the world market leader in its core business – the sales of assembly and fastening materials – the Wurth Group generated its highest annual turnover in history of EUR 20.4 billion in 2023. Compared to the generated sales in 2022 (EUR 19.5 billion), this corresponds to an increase of 3.5 percent.
Wurth – A family business
As a constantly growing business, the Wurth Group employs more than 85,000 employees in over 80 countries. The international team services 3.9 million customers with their 125,000+ products and service solutions worldwide. Exceptional for its size, the Wurth Group is still a family held business, which was founded by Adolf Würth in Künzelsau/Southern Germany in 1945.
Milestones of the Wurth Group
1945
It all started in 1945 after World War II in Künzelsau, a small town in Southern Germany. Adolf Würth who has been in fastening business for more than two decades, established a wholesale company supplying screws, nuts and bolts. Products that were definitively required to rebuild what has been destroyed during the war.
1949
From an early age on, Adolf Würth’s son Reinhold Würth joined the family business. He officially started his career as the company’s first apprenticeship and second employee after he left school at the age of 14 on 1st October 1949.
1951
Still during his apprenticeship in 1951, Reinhold Würth was sent on his first sales trip on his own by his father Adolf Würth. The 15-year old youngster was supposed to look for new customers in Düsseldorf, a city approximately located 400 km northwest of Künzelsau. To demonstrate and showcase products on customer site, Reinhold used to load the company’s handcart with Wurth products.
1954
1954 has been a sad year for the Würth family as family business founder Adolf Wurth passed away at the age of 45. His 19 year old son Reinhold Würth took over the business, which had already an annual turnover of about 80,000 Euros. With his incredible enthusiasm, talent and work ethic he turned the two-man company into a dynamic, worldwide operating trading group with more than 77,000 employees worldwide.
1956
The first Wurth logo, based on Reinhold Würth’s idea, was designed. The emblem shows two screw heads – a socket head screw at the top and a round head screw at the button – that surround the Wurth lettering.
1959
Young boss Reinhold Würth with his first sales representative team in 1959. Today more than 33,000 salaried sales representatives service customers on-site on a global scale. Among them 450+ sales representatives in Australia who daily give their very best to exceed our customers’ requirements.
1962
Wurth went global. The company’s first foreign subsidiary “Würth Nederland B. V." was founded in 1962. Many other has followed since then. Today the Wurth Group counts more than 400 companies in over 80 countries countries across all five continents.
1969
The globalisation of the Wurth Group is continuing. After expanding to several European companies, Wurth took the step to the USA in 1969.
1970
Wurth established the first company in South Africa in 1970.
1975
The trading company started to develop their own products with their own branding. The brand ZEBRA® was born. Since the early days, ZEBRA® has been systematically developed and expanded.
1982
Wurth Australia was founded as the first Wurth Group company in Australia.
1982
The Wurth ORSY® system (Organised SYstem) is launched after a five year test phase. The customised shelfing system does not only allow customers quick access to Wurth products it also optimises stock management and procurement processes due to organised storage and optimum use of storage facilities.
1983
Modernisation of the Wurth logo that was first created in 1956 and last modernised in the 1970’s. With adding a new element to the logo, the emblem has now a brand strip.
1985
In the 1980’s the mother company Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG experienced a significant boom. Between 1980 and 1985 the turnover of the Wurth Group almost doubled and exceeded the billion Deutsche Mark (DM) turnover border for the first time. And the Wurth Group is continuously expanding…
1987
In 1987 Wurth enters the Asian market by acquiring a company in Japan and establishing their own subsidiary in Malaysia. With their commencement in both countries, the Wurth Group is now present on all five continents.
1994
After 45 years in business, Prof. Dr. h. c. mult. Reinhold Würth retires from operational management and takes the chair of Advisory Board of the Wurth Group.
1995
On 20 April 1995, the Wurth Group’s mother company Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG celebrates its 50th anniversary. In the same year, the Wurth Group achieved record sales of EUR 2.2 billion.
1997
With the new medium “Internet”, Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG simplifies their customers’ procurement process. The ordering system “Würth Katalog Online” (WÜKO) = “Wurth Catalogue Online” was launched.
2000
An outstanding year of the company history with new sales records exceeding EUR 5 billion. This achievement represents the fulfilment of the target set by Prof. Dr. h. c. mult. Reinhold Würth. His “Vision 2000”, formulated back in 1987 when group sales were just EUR 700 milion, becomes reality.
2001
On 1st January 2001, the Wurth Group is given a new management structure. The Central Managing Board – compared to the management board of a group holding – is set up as the most senior decision making board of the Wurth Group.
2005
In 2005, the Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG celebrates 60 years in business.
2005
Robert Friedman, who started his career with Wurth in 1992, is appointed Chairman of the Central Managing Board of the Wurth Group.
2006
Bettina Wurth takes over the chair of the Advisory Board of the Wurth Group from her father on 1st March 2006. Prof. Dr. h. c. mult. Reinhold Würth becomes Chairman Emeritus of the Advisory Board and remains Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Wurth Groups’s Family Trust.
2006
On 4th May 20004, Alma Würth, co-founder of the Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG and mother of Prof. Dr. h. c. mult. Reinhold Würth, passes away. Alongside her husband Adolf Würth she was the driving force behind the foundation of the screw wholesale business.
2007
The Wurth Groups’s mother company Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG is the Group’s first entity to record sales of EUR 1 billion in a fiscal year, including intra-Group sales.
2008
Freie Schule Anne-Sophie, funded by the Wurth Foundation, celebrates the opening of its new buildings at the beginning of school year 2008/2009.
2010
Two special anniversaries for the Wurth Group: In April, Prof. Dr. h. c. mult. Reinhold Würth celebrates his 75th birthday and Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG, parent company of the Wurth Group, its 65th anniversary
2011
Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG, parent company of the Wurth Group, celebrates the laying of the foundation stone of a brand new logistics center in Southern Germany. The new building provides the logistic basis for the company’s future growth. 60,000 order lines can be picked every day. The building offers storage space of 17,000 square meters.
2012
The Wurth Foundation celebrates its 25th anniversary. The foundation promotes projects in art and culture, research and science as well as in the field of training and education.
2015
For the first time in its corporate history, the Wurth Group achieved a sales volume of more than one billion euros within one single month in September 2015.
2016
The Wurth Group bolsters its e-business activities by launching its very own B2B online platform in Germany in December 2016. Wucato, an e-procurement solution and online procurement platform for the B2B sector, allows customers to access a Group-wide product range consisting of more than 500,000 products from suppliers within the Wurth Group. Wucato will serve as a pioneering sales channel, enabling the Wurth Group to respond to more complicated demands of its customers and react to new market conditions.
2017
Opening of the Carmen Würth Forum, a new convention center at the Wurth headquarters in Germany. The inauguration ceremony was celebrated on Carmen Würth’s 80th birthday, after whom the building is named. Prof. Dr. h. c. mult. Reinhold Würth wanted to rause a monument to his wifes's honor to keep her memory alive well beyond their days.
2017
The Wurth Group achieves records in sales and operating results. According to the preliminary annual financial statement, the Würth Group reports a sales volume of EUR 12.7 billion in 2017 (previous year: EUR 11.8 billion). This corresponds to a growth of 7.5 percent. Adjusted for foreign currency effects, growth comes to 7.9 percent. In particular, companies in Eastern and Southern Europe grew dynamically. With respect to the business units, Electronics and Production show above-average growth rates.
2018
Wurth Brazil, the largest company of the Wurth Group in Latin America, welcomes the 75,000th Wurth Group employee.
2018
From now on, Wurth will develop and manufacture its own cordless tools. Wurth entered into a joint venture partnership with Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd. named WURTH MASTER POWER TOOLS LTD.
2018
The Wurth Group reports another year of record sales and profits. The success confirms the Group’s strategic change from a distributor to a manufacturer. The multi-channel strategy remains a driver of growth, with e-business sales growing by 24.6 percent, further supporting the current course.
2019
The Wurth Group appoints Dr. Steffen Greubel as new member of the Central Managing Board of the Wurth Group. Dr. Greubel will gradually take over responsibility for the companies of the Würth Line from Peter Zürn, who will resign from this body at the end of 2019.
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2019
70 years of service to the company! Prof. Dr. h. c. mult. Reinhold Würth, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Wurth Group’s Family Trust, can look back to an extraordinary professional life. He turned a two-man business into a globally operating organisation. On 1st October 2019, Reinhold Würth celebrated his 70th work anniversary with many friends and guests from politics, business and culture at the Carmen Wurth Forum at Kuenzelsau/Southern Germany.
The beginning of a global success story
Prof. Reinhold Würth, today’s Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Würth Group’s Family Trusts, took over the family business at the age of 19 when his father Adolf sadly passed away at the age of 45 in 1954. Starting from the early years of the company in post-war Germany, he turned the former two-man business into a worldwide operating trading group.
We owe it to Prof. Reinhold Würth that we have a clear business orientation with a strong brand policy that incorporates a future-oriented product strategy, quality commitment and a customer focused obligation. We are proud of our unique corporate culture and our ability to think in terms of visions which secure our long-term growth.
