200 Years Tradition and Innovation
Six generations in direct succession have led the company through wars, revolutions, empires, dictatorships and republics.
With thinking and acting entrepreneurially, new business areas were developed again and again, securing the continued prosperity of the firm.
The exact date of establishment is unknown but must have been about 1800, when Jasper Röders set up a craft enterprise as a pewter manufacturer in Soltau. He produced pewter tableware for the citizen of Soltau and the surrounding area.
His son, Georg Röders, was able to make tin figurines of such exquisite beauty that he was exempted from military service. Later, he was very successful in the production of cask taps, initially made of tin and then later also made of cherry wood.
He was followed again by a Georg Röders, who foresaw that the metric system of units, and therefore the litre measure, would be introduced in the German Empire, founded in 1871. He hired workers and craftsmen to make litre measures in large quantities ahead of time. Even so, the huge demand which followed exceeded the production capacity by far.
At an age of 21 years, Albrecht Röders then took over the management of the firm, because his father had suffered a serious accident. During the First World War, the firm was forced to close down. The production of cask taps and the pewter foundry resumed again in the twenties. Since casks and hence also cask taps were increasingly being replaced by bottles, the company started investigating the die casting process. The first machines for this purpose were developed in-house. Plastic injection moulding was added later. Those processes are still being continued today by the sister company G.A. Röders. After closing down in the Second World War, the pewter foundry had to be built up from scratch again by Albrecht Röders.
At first, Hinrich Röders started off with a small turning shop, since his father, Albrecht Röders, believed that it would not be possible for him to make his living with a pewter foundry in the 20th century. But pewter became popular and the tradition was carried forward. The turning shop grew from being a subcontracting firm to today’s business unit of blow moulds for PET bottles. In addition, Hinrich Röders initiated the first developments in high speed cutting.
With the entry of today’s Managing Director, Jürgen Röders, the development of the HSC technology was advanced further. In 1991, a HSC machine was presented for the first time at the Hanover Fair. In the years that followed, the production of HSC machines grew to become the largest business unit of the company, with subsidiaries in the USA, China, Vietnam and France.
