AboutGeorg MENSHEN GmbH & Co. KG
From scrap metal trader to global company – the history of MENSHEN
From a one-man operation to a globally operating company with around 1,400 employees worldwide – that is MENSHEN today. The history of the company and its founder Arnold Menshen is somewhat reminiscent of the “American Dream”: from a young man who collected scrap metal with a wheelbarrow to a company founder who turned a group of companies into a world market leader. While still at school, Arnold Menshen began supporting his family’s budget with vacation jobs. After completing his basic schooling, Arnold Menshen started an apprenticeship as a fitter at a metalworking company in Werdohl, a town in the Sauerland region of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany.
1945 – 1970: The early years up to the company’s establishment
After the turmoil of the Second World War, Arnold Menshen returned to Werdohl in October 1945 and worked in a car repair shop before joining a Werdohl scrap dealer as a driver in 1951. Driven by a strong entrepreneurial spirit and keen to be independent, he set up his own scrap metal business in 1953. In 1959, he married Ursula Kracht and moved with her to Neuenrade, a small town near Werdohl. The couple had three children, Knut, Dorle and Lutz. In 1964, Arnold Menshen took over from his father-in-law Walter Staufenberg KG, a jobbing turning shop with 20 employees. In 1968, an extremely successful advertising campaign in trade journals greatly raised awareness of the so-called STAUFF clamp so that demand subsequently went through the roof. These clamps, which were used to fasten pipe and hydraulic systems, were manufactured for the first time from polypropylene and marketed by STAUFF from 1964-1965 onwards. Besides the advertising campaign, the excellent properties of this plastic and outstanding quality of the clamps were the reasons for the marketing success.
