Previously ...

What Steve Jobs can do, Grandpa Karl has been able to do for a long time. The first drills are produced in the garage, the office moves into the children's room in the family home. Even back then, the name KEIL represented the values of family and community - KEIL, short for Karl Eischeid from Loope, a district of Engelskirchen.

Success demanded space. The company gets its first own location, the children get their room back. Later, production is expanded several times.

A customer has a problem, Grandpa Karl has the will to solve it. With inventive talent and expertise, he develops the undercut anchor and the associated drilling system. Some scoffed that he was creating a loss-maker, but Karl believed in his product.

Every new technology needs courageous people to try it out. In 1990 builders rely on the undercut system for the first time to fasten façade panels. They are rewarded with quality and durability.

Family business means responsibility. Karl’s daughter Petra and her husband Jürgen Bergfelder have been working at KEIL for years. Now they assume responsibility for management.

In the beginning there was drill production, but the successful product undercut anchor demands more attention. KEIL Befestigungstechnik and KEIL Werkzeugfabrik are officially separated. From now on, KEIL Befestigungstechnik is completely on its own.

Every twenty years, there is a generational change in the family business. Gerda Söhngen takes over the business from her parents Petra and Jügen Bergfelder.

She brings Christian Schmidt on board as a sparring partner. Under them, KEIL treats itself to a makeover.

New bosses, new location, always Engelskirchen. The new headquarters, merging production and office building shows what KEIL can do: The ceramics façade is a ventilated rainscreen façade with KEIL undercut anchors.

If you do the maths carefully, you can see that 32 years have passed since Grandpa Karl's invention in 1988. Unlike with façade fastenings, KEIL is not as precise when it comes to celebrating.

Safety is most important when fastening façades. When others recognise that KEIL does a good job at it, all the better. The team is happy about the award as Brand of the Century and the German Innovation Award.

Our story is published in the volume "Aus bester Familie" (engl.: "From the best family").

Named after our founder, our self-cutting anchor KARL has been shaking up the facade market since 2023. It got off to a flying start at BAU 2023 in Munich.

"Successful generational change in the tandem model and above-average success thanks to unconventional and unconditionally honest approach"

Under the patronage of former Federal Minister Brigitte Zypries, the GERMAN INNOVATION INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABILITY AND DIGITALIZATION presents the award, WORKERS OF THE FUTURE.