The family-owned STIHL company celebrated its 90th anniversary this month along with more than 8,000 guests. The staff and their families as well as company retirees were invited to the family fete at the founding company in Waiblingen-Neustadt Germany.
“The STIHL success story has been built on the skill and high commitment of our workforce,” said the founder’s grandson and current chairman of the supervisory and advisory boards, Dr. Nikolas Stihl. “Those of you who have worked with and for STIHL in the past, and those of you who are still actively involved are the basis of our success.”
When company founder Andreas Stihl developed his first chain saw 90 years ago, he wanted to “make people’s work in, and with nature, easier”. As a qualified mechanical engineer, he opened his engineering office in Stuttgart in 1926 and set about implementing his vision. His first chain saw was a two-man electric model. A gasoline chain saw was announced in 1929, and it was not long before success ensued. In the years that followed, STIHL regularly launched new models. The small engineering office of the early days grew into an impressive engineering factory.
Andreas Stihl was a pioneer of globalization. He soon began to sell his first gasoline chain saws in neighboring European countries. Starting in 1930, STIHL exported chain saws to America, then to Russia a year later. In the years thereafter STIHL set up sales companies in what were and still are its most important markets around the world.
STIHL employs about 15,000 men and women and has more than 40,000 authorized servicing dealers worldwide. The maker of outdoor power equipment has been the world’s top-selling chain saw brand since 1971.