Rehau Group

The REHAU Group is a family-owned polymer business, which develops, manufactures and markets products for the automotive, construction, furniture, materials, medical and industrial sectors. Rehau employs more than 20,000 people in over 190 locations. The headquarters for the car and industry business is in Rehau (Bavaria) and for Commercial Construction is in Erlangen (Bavaria). The administrative headquarters of the REHAU Group is located in Muri bei Bern, Switzerland (canton of Bern).

The turnover of the whole group amounts to over 4 billion Euros.

History

Helmut Wagner (1925–2021) founded the company in 1948 in Rehau, Bavaria. On December 28, 1948, the district office of Hof (Saale) granted medical student Helmut Wagner the official permission to establish a small-scale industrial plant for the production of Igelit (a type of plastic). With this approval, the 23-year-old son of a school board official abandoned his studies to produce Keder and plastic hoses. The foundation was extrusion technology. The first production site was an annex of the Fränkische Lederfabrik (Franconian Leather Factory), established in 1907 in Rehau. According to commercial register entries, the fledgling company was financially supported by Helmut’s mother, Christina Wagner, and Elsa Linhardt, daughter of the factory owner. The company’s rise began as a supplier for the VW Beetle, producing running boards and grab handles for drivers and passengers.

In 1949, Wagner renamed his factory Rehau Plastiks.

During this early phase, part of the machinery and equipment was developed and built in-house. Alongside extrusion, other processes such as injection molding and extrusion blow molding were introduced as product development advanced.

New applications for plastic products (e.g., furniture profiles, hoses for industrial and medical technology) were soon explored, sophisticated technical components and systems were developed, and plastic granules were produced in-house through customized formulations and compounding. The material types of the Rehau Group carry the prefix RAU. As the raw materials industry developed new technical polymers, Rehau continuously expanded its range of plastic types.

In addition to two plants in Rehau, the first plant for automotive parts, including bumpers, opened in Feuchtwangen in 1951. Today, Feuchtwangen, with two plants, is the group’s largest production site in Germany. In 1958, the first plastic window profile and the first magnetic tape frame for refrigerators were extruded.

In 1962, the first plant outside Europe opened in Montreal, Canada. In the early 1960s, Rehau Plastiks’ headquarters moved to Muri near Bern, Switzerland, centralizing global procurement for 45 plants in 21 countries and group controlling. The Muri holding company employs around 150 people.

At Rehau’s initiative, the profession of plastic molder was introduced in Germany in 1976. During the 1970s, demand for plastic parts surged, which Rehau supported in automotive, furniture, electronics, window, sanitary, heating, building technology, and pipe/hose applications. Alongside the Rehau administration, a new administrative center was established in Erlangen-Eltersdorf.

In 2000, Helmut’s sons, Jobst Wagner as president and Veit Wagner as vice president, took over the company, steering it toward its current divisional structure. In 2021, Jobst Wagner handed the presidency to Veit and moved to the vice presidency.

In 2004, the medical division, with around 200 employees, was spun off into the sister company Raumedic AG. It serves as a development partner and manufacturer for the medical and pharmaceutical industries, with an independent sales network and two production sites ( Helmbrechts and Mills River, North Carolina, USA) for extrusion, injection molding, and assembly in cleanrooms. Today, Raumedic employs approximately 1,300 people globally.

In 2018, REHAU Verwaltungszentrale AG (headquartered in Muri bei Bern) acquired the internationally active MB Barter & Trading SA (MBT) from Zug/Steinhausen, with 30 global locations. In 2019, Meraxis was founded as an independent company in Muri, merging Rehau’s procurement division with MBT. Meraxis is now a leading distributor of plastics, handling over €2 billion in volume annually.

At the end of 2021, Rehau AG + Co. restructured its German operations to legally and operationally separate its automotive business. On October 8, 2021, Rehau Management SE was registered, followed by Rehau Industries SE & Co. KG on October 15, 2021. On January 4, 2022, Rehau AG + Co. was renamed Rehau Automotive SE & Co. KG, with Rehau Management SE as the general partner. All shares of Rehau Management SE are held by the Swiss parent company, Rehau Verwaltungszentrale AG, Muri bei Bern.

In 2024, the Rehau Group and U.S.-based Atlas Holdings agreed to acquire Rehau Automotive, which will merge with supplier SRG Global. The acquisition is pending antitrust approval and is expected to close by Q1 2025. Rehau will retain roughly one-third ownership in the new entity.

Locations

The REHAU group has more than 190 locations in 68 countries.

References

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Plastics companies of Germany
Auto parts suppliers of Germany
Manufacturing companies of Switzerland
Manufacturing companies established in 1948
Polymer manufacturers
1948 establishments in Germany
Companies based in Bavaria
Companies based in the canton of Bern