How It All Started—from a Family Business to a Global Player

Sandra Webster was one of the first two employees to start working at Pepperl+Fuchs GB Ltd in 1975 and is now the Group's longest-standing employee worldwide. She can still remember her first days at Pepperl+Fuchs as if it were only yesterday. "Pepperl+Fuchs was completely different from other companies in which I had previously worked—in terms of the family environment and the industry, which was completely new to me. The sensor product designations such as NJ1.5-6.5N seemed very strange at first, but I got used to them quite quickly," recalls Sandra Webster.

"Back then, all the processes were still manual, with no automated systems or central customer database, let alone an ERP system. We had to record everything manually. It goes without saying that, given today's huge order volumes, manual processing would no longer be possible. We all needed to learn how to multitask, since we were still a very small and hands-on company at the time. I quickly became part of a real family business," continues Webster. 

To this day, Sandra Webster still remembers a unique customer request: "We received a call from Alton Towers, a large amusement park in the UK. They urgently needed one of our sensors, and since the owner did not want to close the park, they asked if they could land a helicopter somewhere to pick up the sensor. Of course, this wasn’t possible—Oldham isn’t really known for its green belt," jokes Webster. "We transported the sensor to Alton Towers the very same day to ensure that the park continued to run smoothly. Regardless of the size of the company, we have always managed to get the most out of it for our customers, and this is still our ethos today," says Sandra Webster with pride.

By 1988, the number of employees had risen from 26 to 110. Manual systems became automated, the company enjoyed year-on-year growth, and even the corporate color changed. "When I started at Pepperl+Fuchs, the corporate color was a shade of blue instead of the unique green it is today," recalls Webster. "Another milestone was the introduction of an automated ordering system, which made our work so much easier and gave us plenty of time to get on other key tasks."

The subsidiary's continued success meant that it once again had to look for new premises to accommodate its steady growth. In 1991, Pepperl+Fuchs GB invested £1.3 million and moved into its new premises—where it is still located today—at 77 Ripponden Road, Oldham. These premises span an area of 35,000 square feet. 

The production facilities were relocated to Singapore in 1999, but the research and development expertise remains in Oldham. With the acquisition of the company ecom Instruments in 2016, Pepperl+Fuchs established a completely new business unit in the field of explosion protection: The portfolio includes intrinsically safe smartphones, tablets, and wearables for use in hazardous areas. This provided the company and also the UK subsidiary with a large sales growth rate and opened up new market opportunities.

With Britain's exit from the European Union in 2020, Pepperl+Fuchs—like many other companies—finally faced the huge challenge of overcoming the negative impact of Brexit and the resulting economic barriers. "We had to ensure that we were still meeting customers' expectations and that Brexit had no appreciable adverse impact on the delivery of our goods," Webster reports. 

"Looking back over the almost past 50 years, I can say that Pepperl+Fuchs is a fantastic company that people like working for. Our product developments, acquisitions, and a good workforce have always ensured that we are at the forefront. I am very proud that I have contributed and still continue to contribute to the success and growth of the company for more than 48 years," summarizes Sandra Webster.

Besides the production facilities in Singapore and Europe, Pepperl+Fuchs established two other key Asian production sites in Bintan, Indonesia (in 2000) and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (in 2008). Asia is one of the automation specialist's most important sales markets. With its broad network and subsidiaries in most Asian countries, Pepperl+Fuchs remains close to its customers to provide them with the best possible service and expert on-site support for integration and technical questions.

Chris Romano, Product Manager for Purge and Pressurization Systems, has been there from the start and remembers it well. "At the beginning, the Pepperl+Fuchs brand was still an unknown quantity in the US market—the new kid on the block. We sold proximity sensors, the first ultrasonic sensors—at that time still from Siemens—and some intrinsic safety barriers. Our inductive proximity sensors gained in popularity over mechanical switches in industrial applications, but intrinsic safety barriers were still considered a science fiction concept back then," Chris Romano laughs.

"Although we were still an entirely unknown entity in the market and had difficulty finding suitable distributors and sales staff, we enjoyed rapid growth—from a few daily orders to multiple daily orders in a very short span of time. From the very beginning, customers valued our product quality and competitive prices. That helped us grow quickly," Chris Romano continues, looking back at those early days. But there were hurdles that virtually no one remembers. This may be unimaginable for many today, but back then there was no internet, no computers, no smartphones, no PowerPoint presentations. "As a source of information for new products, applications, and potential customers, we used traditional trade fairs, trade magazines, sales staff, and the Thomas Register of North American manufacturers and suppliers. Google was not around back then. Orders were typewritten, technical drawings were drawn by hand, and we had to carry a huge projector around to give presentations to customers. The subsidiary communicated with the German headquarters in Mannheim exclusively via fax. Calls were only made in absolute emergencies, since transatlantic calls cost a small fortune back then," remembers Chris Romano, adding with a laugh: "I am glad that we got smarter."

With the expansion of business activities in the United States, Pepperl+Fuchs eventually grew into a global group of companies. The USA and the entire American continent still represent a vital sales market for Pepperl+Fuchs. The Group-wide competence center for human-machine interfaces and purge and pressurization systems is located at the US headquarters in Twinsburg, Ohio.

In the spring of 2013, one of six Solution Engineering Centers (SEC) was established in Houston, Texas, where Pepperl+Fuchs develops tailor-made solutions for various applications in hazardous areas. The SEC spans an impressive 1000 square meters and puts Pepperl+Fuchs in close physical proximity to many of its customers in the oil and gas industry, providing a definite advantage for close cooperation and things such as factory acceptance tests, which are vital for customized solutions.

October 2019 saw Pepperl+Fuchs open a state-of-the-art distribution center in nearby Katy, Texas. The plant, measuring more than 110,000 square feet, is the smallest of its three global logistics centers. It serves as a showroom for the wide range of applications of Pepperl+Fuchs sensors in intralogistics.

The US headquarters is and will remain in Twinsburg, Ohio. The company is currently investing in the construction of a completely new building with modern offices and R&D space, which is expected to be ready for occupancy in 2025. The requirements of the modern and hybrid working world, which has changed considerably in recent years, were also taken into account when designing the premises. Pepperl+Fuchs is thus also positioning itself as a future-proof and competitive employer in the region.