Right in the middle of the Coronavirus pandemic, Werner Schmid celebrates it’s 75th anniversary. Due to contact limitations, a big celebration event is not possible. Therefore, Werner Schmid celebrates with a yearlong anniversary campaign for it’s employees. This unique internal campaign is awarded four prestigious awards: The German Agency Award, a Gold Stevie Award (category “Best Event for internal Appreciation and Motivation”), the German Brand Award (category „Excellence in Brand Strategy and Creation – Branded Activities During Covid 19“) and the Best Employer Brand Award 2021/22 in silver (category “Hidden Champion”)

“Germanys most coveted company award” (according to newspaper DIE WELT) has been offered for more than 25 years by Leipzig-based Oskar Patzelt Foundation. Since 2003, the award is conferred Germany-wide in 12 regions. In 2019, 5.399 companies were nominated, 307 of which in the region of Hessen. Of these 307 companies, an independent jury chose 6 finalist and 3 winners – Werner Schmid being among the winners.

Werner Schmid GmbH acquires a neighbouring plot of land with a total area of 10,000 square metres, thus ensuring continued long-term growth at the current location.

In awareness of having passed on his life’s work to his family, the company’s founder Werner Schmid dies at the age of 83.

Right from the time of its founding in 1999, Werner Schmid GmbH has been involved in the non-profit initiative Perspektiva GmbH, which has set itself the goal of qualifying physically, mentally or emotionally disadvantaged young people for the primary job market.

What started in 1971 with automatic process step batching culminated between 1980 and 1990 in a complete conversion to automated systems with automatic belt feeding. The first hydraulic press with a table length of more than 2000 mm is commissioned at the beginning of the 1990s and gives the company a clear technological lead. Thanks to the size of the machine and the innovative tool technology, Werner Schmid is able to stamp the bayonet of a housing in the transfer tool for the first time, making it a pioneer for other companies in the industry.

Whereas so far, design work was carried out on the drawing board, from 1981, with the introduction of the first 2-D program, the company starts to rely more heavily on computer-aided systems. Digitisation arrives in the toolmaking facility of Werner Schmid with the procurement of the first CNC wire erosion machine. The entry into freely programmable control technology follows in 1986 with the deployment of the first CNC-capable milling machine.

Inserts from the in-house metal part manufacturing facility are coated with plastic for the first time at the start of the eighties. Even today, the combination of the two production domains, metal and plastic, into metal-plastic hybrids remains a successful specialisation.

In 1970, Werner Schmid GmbH is able to expand its range and develops the plastic parts manufacturing facility with an important customer. The foundation stone is laid for the core competences that continue to serve the company even today: Precision parts of metal and plastic, which are manufactured using specially designed and manufactured tools. Moreover, this rare combination of metal and plastics manufacturing integrated in one factory enables Werner Schmid to specialise in metal-plastic hybrids.

Ten years later, Werner Schmid GmbH again reaches the limits of its capacity, and in a logistical tour de force, moves into the location in the Weichselstrasse in Fulda between Christmas and New Year. This is where the company is still located, and there is sufficient space for further growth.

Continuous growth makes the first relocation necessary in 1953. At the bigger location, the company ultimately evolves into a stamping plant and starts building its first toolmaking shop. Instead of building hardware, manufacturing of stampings, pressings and drawn parts in individual operations on manually operated machines for various industrial sectors is started here.

The founder of the company, Werner Schmid, is a Russian prisoner of war. The young man escapes and makes his way to Fulda. Owing to a lack of contacts, financial means and the necessities of daily life, in May 1946, he starts repairing destroyed homes. That very October, he commissions his first machine and starts manufacturing furniture hardware, frame parts, door and window fittings and ashtrays from material that he picks up in scrapyards.