Renk

The company traces back to Johann Julius Renk (4 January 1848 – 3 November 1896). He completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith and lathe operator at Maschinenfabrik Augsburg, later MAN Group, and began working as a journeyman lathe operator at Maschinenfabrik L. A. Riedinger. During this time, Renk had the idea of a machine that could produce gears completely mechanically. The usual production process at that time consisted of two individual steps, the mechanical slitting of the wheel bodies and the manual filing of the finished gears using templates. In May 1873, Renk set up his own small workshop for the mechanical production of gears in Augsburg's Lechviertel district.[6]

First, he developed a semi-automatic spur gear planing machine that worked using templates. Barely four years after founding his workshop, he also designed and built a machine tool that could produce conical wheels, today known as bevel gears.[6] For this invention, which caused a great stir among experts at the time, Renk was awarded the patent DRP 8000/79 in 1879 (production of the first involute gearing with a pressure angle of 14.5 degrees).[6][7] In the same year, the company moved to the Göggingen district of Augsburg and established Renk's headquarters there, which still exist as of 2023.[8] In 1888, Renk owned 15 self-built gear planing machines, among other machine tools. His workforce consisted of 37 employees.[4][6] Two years later, the entrepreneur founded a factory health insurance fund for his workforce.[6][7]

When Renk died in November 1896, his company employed over 100 workers who produced about 12,000 gears of all kinds every year. The turnover was around DM500,000. After the founder's death, his company was converted into a joint-stock company with the name Zahnräderfabrik Augsburg vorm. Joh. Renk Act. Ges. on 11 March 1897.[6] The newly founded company acquired the company, including land, equipment and machinery, from Renk's heirs at a price of DM666,391.51.[9] In the corporation's first fiscal year, the workforce consisted of 130 employees.[10]

In the years after the turn of the century, the company expanded production so that by 1913 around 700 people were employed. The company changed its name to Zahnräderfabrik Augsburg AG in the same year.[6] In order to mitigate the consequences of the First World War and ensure the company's continued existence, it was incorporated into the mechanical engineering group Gutehoffnungshütte (GHH) from Oberhausen, which later became MAN, in 1923. In the following years, Renk thus was able to benefit from clients within the group as well as from favourable sources of fuel, pig iron and steel.[11] From 1926, ground gears were produced in Augsburg.[6]

In the years before and during the Second World War, the company was a major supplier for the German Wehrmacht.[9] Forced labourers were used on a large scale during the Second World War. In August 1942, 180 men and 30 women from the territories of the Soviet Union alone were forced labourers at Renk.[12] In 1944, around 2,000 forced labourers for the Messerschmitt, Renk and Alpine companies were housed in the Sammellager V in Augsburg.[13][14]

Among the most important customers after the Second World War were steel processing companies, such as the Group's sister company Schloemann, to which multiple large rolling mill gearboxes were supplied. By the end of the 1950s, sales had increased to around DM50 million and Renk employed over 1,400 workers.[11] In the following decades, the company expanded its product range by acquiring rival companies. These acquisitions included the takeover of Eisenwerk Wülfel in Hanover in 1975[15] and the Tacke GmbH in Rheine in 1986. The French companies Société Européenne d'Engrenages (SEE) and Société d'Equipements, Systèmes et Mécanismes (SESM) joined Renk in 1989. Thus, the company expanded into the areas of plain bearings and flexible couplings through Wülfel, crown gear couplings and certain marine gears through Tacke, small marine reversing gears and brake discs through SEE as well as armoured gear units through SESM.[6]

The company was renamed to Renk Aktiengesellschaft (Renk AG) in 1987. In 1995, the merger of Renk Tacke GmbH with Renk AG was finally completed.[16] In 1998, Renk was represented at three German locations in Augsburg, Hanover and Rheine, as well as four locations abroad, two of which were in France and one each in the US and Romania. At that time, the group employed 1,700 people, who achieved a turnover of around DM500 million.[6]

In 2000, the Renk Corporation Labeco Division was formed when Renk Corporation, a division of the German Renk AG, purchased the test systems engineering business of the US Laboratory Equipment Corporation (Labeco).[17] At the same time, the product division Plain Bearings of A. Friedr. Flender AG joined the company.[18] On 1 April 2004, the Test Systems business unit became legally independent and was spun off into Renk Test System GmbH.[19]

In 2007, the company made the headlines due to a bribery affair. A court of appeal in Paris issued suspended sentences against Renk board spokesman Manfred Hirt and his former deputy Norbert Schulze.[20] Renk-Maag GmbH was also founded in the same year. Renk-Maag GmbH emerged in May from Winterthur-based Maag-Gear, which manufactured turbo gearboxes and spare parts as well as synchronization, manual, and gear clutches.[21]

As of 2011, Renk AG was a member of the Volkswagen Group due to the majority takeover of MAN by Volkswagen AG. Volkswagen held 76 % of the company's shares.[22][23][24]

Renk Shanghai Service and Commercial Ltd. Co. was founded in 2012, which also resulted in the opening of a Renk service centre in Shanghai.[25] In 2017, Renk AG acquired the Dutch company Damen Schelde Gears B.V., a manufacturer of marine gear units.[26] In the same year, the subsidiaries Renk Gears Private Ltd. in India and Renk Korea Co. Ltd. in South Korea were founded.[27][28] Further expansion followed with the acquisitions of Horstman Holdings Limited in the UK in 2019,[23] the Combat Propulsion Systems division of defence contractor L3Harris Technologies in the US[4] and General Kinetics in Canada, a specialist in suspension and running gear and supplier of mobility systems for wheeled and tracked armoured vehicles.[29][23]

At the end of 2018, Renk AG was demerged from MAN SE into Volkswagen Vermögensverwaltungs GmbH.[30][31]

In December 2020, the annual general meeting of Renk AG resolved to transfer the shares of its minority shareholders in return for cash compensation as part of a merger with Rebecca BidCo AG, a portfolio company of Triton Fund V, and subsequently to convert the AG into Renk GmbH.[23][5] In the subsequent appraisal proceedings before the Munich Regional Court, a total of 75 claimants objected to the amount of the cash compensation determined.[32] The proceedings were ended by a settlement. Renk has no longer been listed on the stock exchange since February 2021.[33]

Since May 2021, the board of directors at Renk GmbH has consisted of the following persons: Claus von Hermann (chairman of the supervisory board), Horst Ott (employee representative), Swantje Conrad, Sascha Dudzik (employee representative), Cécile Duthell, Lothar Evers (employee representative), Johannes Meier, Adela Lieb (employee representative), Klaus Refle (employee representative), Mario Sommer (employee representative), Klaus Stahlmann and Rainer Martens.[36]

The Renk Group has works councils at its Augsburg, Rheine, and Hanover sites.[37][38][39] The representatives of the work councils include six members of the supervisory board.[36]

The Renk Group has manufacturing plants in Augsburg (vehicle, industrial and marine transmissions, test systems), Rheine (industrial and marine transmissions, couplings), Hanover (plain bearings, couplings), Starnberg (Remk Magnet-Motor), Bath in England, Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône in France (vehicle transmissions), Winterthur in Switzerland, Muskegon and Sterling Heights in the US and Canada, as well as a sales and design office in Sonthofen in the Allgäu region. In addition, Renk has its own representatives in over 100 countries.[40][23][41]

The Group has the following subsidiaries:[3]

• Renk GmbH, Augsburg, Germany
• Renk FinCo GmbH, Munich, Germany
• Renk Magnet-Motor GmbH, Starnberg, Germany
• Renk Test System GmbH, Augsburg, Germany
• Renk-Maag Gmbh, Winterthur, Switzerland
• Renk France S.A.S., Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, France
• Horstman Holdings Ltd., Bath, UK.
• Horstman Defence Systems Limited, Bath, UK
• Renk America LLC, Muskegon (MI), US*
• Renk Holdings Inc., Muskegon (MI), US**
• Renk Corporation, Duncan (SC), US
• Renk Systems Corporation, Camby (IN), US
• Horstman Inc., Sterling Heights (MI), US
• Horstman Canada Inc., Canada***[42]

* Renk America LLC was formed in 2021 from the Combat Propulsion Systems business acquired from L3Harris Technologies.[4]

** In the course of establishing Renk America LLC, Renk Holdings Inc. was founded to bundle all US activities.[4]

*** Horstman Canada Inc. was formed in 2023 from the merger of the defence company General Kinetics with the existing centre of excellence in Canada.[42][43]

In the past, there has been repeated criticism that arms manufactured by German companies are exported to crisis and conflict regions, contrary to legal regulations. In particular, exports to countries such as Saudi Arabia or Algeria have been criticized.[44][45] Renk participates in such programmes, and a significant part of Renk's sales is generated by the production of gearboxes for tanks and warships.[44][46] In reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the public view of exports of German military equipment to foreign countries changed. Since then, Renk, like other companies, has been attested to be a necessary manufacturer for the sector.[47][24]

On 29 September 1993, Renk AG signed a contract with GIAT for the supply of transmissions for 436 Leclerc tanks.[48] Turnover from this transaction amounted to approximately €100 million. The tanks were manufactured for the United Arab Emirates.[49] To secure this contract, Renk board spokesman Manfred Hirt and his deputy Norbert Schulze paid bribes amounting to a total of 5.13 million German marks to Jean-Charles Marchiani and Yves Manuel. Marchiani was an advisor to the French Minister of the Interior, Charles Pasqua, during this period and later prefect of the Var department. A consultancy contract of 19 September 1993 with the company Irish Euro Agencies Ltd served as a cover for the money payment. The money was first paid into an account at the Westminster Bank in London and then channelled into two Swiss accounts.[48]

Marchiani was sentenced to three years' imprisonment without probation and a fine of €150,000 for bribery. Yves Manuel received a three-year suspended sentence and a fine of €150,000 for complicity in bribery of a public official.[20][50] The sentences imposed on Hirt and Schulze under French law were also upheld by the Paris Court of Appeals in March 2007. Both received 18-month suspended sentences and fines of €100,000 each.[20] Manfred Hirt resigned from his position as Spokesman of the Board of the Renk AG and handed it over to Florian Hofbauer effective 31 August 2007, and left the board completely at the end of 2007.[51]