50 years of Meibes rapid installation technology

The pioneer of rapid installation technology celebrated its 50-year existence with partners, clients and guests from the political arena in May.
The anniversary was fittingly celebrated in the Leipziger Handelsbörse, the oldest assembly hall of the Leipzig mercantile community.

On 1 April 1961 Helmut Meibes founded the company in Altwarmbüchen near Hannover. Shortly thereafter his brother, Alfred, joined the Gebr. Meibes GmbH as one of its managing directors, whose initial activity was limited to the distribution of products for heating technology.

In their own heating construction business, which was in parallel operation for those years, they quickly recognized the shortcomings of the installation workmanship. Simply manual skills – brick on brick. This encouraged them to open a production plant which, for the first time, streamlined the time-consuming construction site installation with industrial pre-fabricated armature sets and patented developments.

The Meibes flattened flange for instance, which due to its oval trimming slides through a cap nut and is able to be screwed with a threaded tube, is like before state-of-the-art technology. Back then the company adopted a stylish flange drawing into the current company logo.

In professional circles the name Meibes was relatively quickly associated with rapid installation technology. Continuous expansion necessitated plant extensions and relocation. With the opening up of the border in 1990 the Lower Saxons established a second operation in Leipzig and founded subsidiaries in Leszno/Poland and in Prague. The time-saving armatures, armoured hoses, flexible stainless steel pipes and especially the decentralized home unit Logotherm for local and distant heating supply of individual apartments – were all ideally suited for the huge refurbishment needs of the East.In those German reunification years alone, the group turnover doubled to 50 million Deutsche Mark.

In 2001 the Meibes family sold the company to the Aalberts Industries N.V. Holland corporation. Further German companies such as Rossweiner, Simplex, Seppelfricke, Conti-Sanitärarmaturen and other illustrious names also belong to Aalberts. Of the foreign sister companies to be mentioned are Broen Armaturen (Denmark), Comap (France), Henco (Belgium) and Pegler-Yorkshire (Great Britain).

Aalberts vacated the Burgwedel/Altwarmbüchen location and concentrated production, logistics, construction, research and distribution in Gerichshain near Leipzig. The transition from an owner-managed medium sized enterprise to a subsidiary of a group of undertakings paved the way for new business opportunities. Above all, this afforded investments in the restructuring with the goal of perfecting service, delivery capacity and innovation. In Gerichshain Meibes installed new assembly lines which are based on cutting-edge production and warehousing knowledge.

Currently, the heating and domestic water installation specialist is making the move beyond armature systems technology to building systems technology. Being imbedded in Aalberts Industries with companies in the entire field of energy for buildings under one umbrella, allows for the near complete furnishing of buildings offered in a modular construction system. Adapted modern electronic engineering with a main controller as a superior communication centre controls the smooth data traffic between system areas and in this way optimises operations.
Herewith, Meibes has opened the door to Smart Metering and energy efficiency and paved the way for expansion.