Company anniversary: 85 years of tradition and innovation: HOLGER CLASEN continues on its path to success

The path to success has been paved by highly skilled, often in-house trained staff, numerous technical innovations, and a strong global corporate culture.

“Making work easier for humans has been our company’s mission from the very start. It’s been a central theme running through our corporate history,” says Lennart Clasen, managing director of HOLGER CLASEN. The company’s range of products has expanded continuously over the years, but especially in the recent past. While, as a ship supplier, founding father Holger Clasen mostly supplied rust removal tools and abrasives to the marine industry, today HOLGER CLASEN caters to a large spectrum of industries with a focus on the energy and automotive sector. “To have a stake in the energy revolution, we have designed various special tools for wind turbines and farms,“ Lennart Clasen explains. The company’s continuous advancement and growth firmly rest on a corporate culture that upholds values such as loyalty, fairness, involvement, and responsibility. This atmosphere has motivated staff to develop innovative tools – irrespective of the overall economic situation of the times. “In over eight decades we have never lost track of our goal to make work easier for humans,” Lennart Clasen proudly observes.

Training as part of our value culture

To maintain the company’s great innovative strength and creativity, the Hamburg-based toolmaker relies on a highly skilled workforce that is often trained in-house. “Starting this summer, we will once again train two dual program students, one majoring in business administration and the other in economics and mechanical engineering, as well as one apprentice specializing in whole and foreign trade. But we also attach great importance to our long-standing staff members’ satisfaction and further advancement“, emphasizes Lennart Clasen. That’s why it’s no surprise that employees stay with the company for a long time. This year alone, three staff members celebrate their 10-year anniversary and another his 20-year anniversary with the company.

Changing challenges

While company founder Holger Clasen faced the repeated destruction of the company premises in air raids during World War II, challenges changed tremendously in the decades to come. “Today’s biggest challenge is to survive on the global market without the financial clout of a publicly traded large company“, explains Lennart Clasen. Instead, the company relies on new technologies, continual tool innovations and improvements that make work easier for users in a wide field of industrial sectors.

Celebrating at the historic Museum Harbor

“To celebrate our company anniversary, we went back to the roots and partied on a floating crane in Hamburg’s port”, recalls Christina Nöhrnberg, assistant to the management of HOLGER CLASEN. Staff and guests joined for a maritime themed evening of fun and festivities to commemorated the company’s 85^th anniversary. One highlight was a challenge where staff members and guests had a chance to try their hand at HOLGER-CLASEN tools to test their speed and dexterity skills against others.