Wiha Tools is a

manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary se ...

hand tools A hand tool is any tool that is powered by hand rather than a motor. Categories of hand tools include wrenches, pliers, cutters, files, striking tools, struck or hammered tools, screwdrivers, vises, clamps, snips, hacksaws, drills, an ...

for use in trade and industry, with its headquarters in

Schonach im Schwarzwald Schonach im Schwarzwald is a town in the district of Schwarzwald-Baar in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Sport Winter sports, especially Nordic combined and cross-country skiing, have a great influence on Schonach. In every year, Schonach is a ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

, Germany.

History

The company was founded in

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany, with a population of 355,000. Wuppertal is the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and List of cities in Germany by population, 17th-largest in Germany. It ...

in 1939 by Willi Hahn. The region in the

Bergisches Land The Bergisches Land (, ) is a low mountain range in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, east of the Rhine and south of the Ruhr. The landscape is shaped by forests, meadows, rivers and creeks and contains over twenty artificial lakes ...

between

Remscheid Remscheid () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is, after Wuppertal and Solingen, the third-largest municipality in Bergisches Land, being located on the northern edge of the region, on the south side of the Ruhr area. Remscheid ha ...

Solingen Solingen (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr. After Wuppertal, it is the second-largest city in the Bergisches Land, and a member of ...

and Wuppertal was the early center of the tool industry, as metal ores were mined there and many forges were located along the rivers. The initial

syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

s of Willi Hahn's name form the company name. Four years later the company headquarters were relocated to Schonach. While initially only nuts and bolts were manufactured, eight years later in 1947 the production of screwdrivers commenced. The other core product groups were gradually built in the following years. In 1966 the plant in

Mönchweiler Mönchweiler is a municipality in the district of Schwarzwald-Baar in Baden-Württemberg in Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to t ...

/Black Forest was acquired - now housing the blades and L-keys production. In 1985 a subsidiary was founded in the United States (today's Willi Hahn Corp.) Over the years further branches were established in France, Spain, England, Denmark, Poland, China and Vietnam. Next to follow were Wiha Thailand, Canada, and Asia Pacific. The company lists 3,500 different hand tools in its stock catalogue, including screwdrivers, torque wrenches and L-keys, bits, pliers, hammers and measuring tools. The owner managed company employs 750 staff worldwide. Main German competitors are the manufacturer

Wera Tools Wera Tools is the popular name for tool manufacturer Wera Werkzeuge GmbH with headquarters in Cronenberg, Wuppertal, Cronenberg (Wuppertal, Germany) and production in Bystřice nad Pernštejnem and Třebíč in the Czech Republic. History In 1 ...

, Gedore, Knipex and Hazet. Since 2010 the company is title sponsor of the regional basketball team '' Wiha Panthers Schwenningen''.

Awards

Wiha has repeatedly received awards for product design, innovation and social commitment – amongst these, almost 20 "iF awards" including gold for the Wiha magazine bit holder and about 10 "Red Dot Awards" including the "Red Dot Best of the Best".

References

External links

* {{Tool manufacturers Tool manufacturing companies of Germany Companies based in Baden-Württemberg German companies established in 1939 German brands Manufacturing companies established in 1939