WAGO GmbH

WAGO (Pronounced Vah-go and not Way-go or Wa-go[3]) was founded on April 27, 1951 as WAGO Klemmenwerk GmbH in Minden, after brothers-in-law Heinrich Nagel and Friedrich Hohorst purchased a patent for spring clamp technology. The company is named after the inventors Wagner and Olbricht from whom the patent (Patent No. 838778) was purchased. In the same year, WAGO presented the first spring terminals at the Hannover Messe,[4] which however faced less reception due to ductility problems.[5]

In 1961, Wolfgang Hohorst, son of the founder Hohorst, joined the company. At that time, the company had 20 employees.[6] In 1966, the company changed the material of the terminal housings (from thermoset to Polyamide 6,6) and developed additional components such as connectors and solderable terminals for printed circuit boards, which enabled the company to enter the lighting industry.[4] A few years later, in 1973, WAGO introduced the box terminal for use in electrical installations, which was the first spring-loaded terminal to be certified by VDE.[5] In 1975, the English company Bowthorpe Electric acquired a majority stake in WAGO.[7]

In 1977, the company developed the spring-cage terminal block under the product name Cage Clamp. This invention was also the basis for the company's subsequent product groups.[5] The cage clamp has since become an industrial standard.[4] With the launch of the box terminal and the cage clamp, the company expanded internationally. Until the mid-1990s WAGO established subsidiaries in France, Switzerland, Austria, USA, Japan, the UK and former East Germany (Sondershausen),[8] Czech Republic[9] and in India.[7] In 1994, the company revenue amounted to 204 million DM.[7] In 1998, Wolfgang Hohorst founded the WAGO Foundation with the goal of promoting education and training for young people interested in technology.[10]

After the Fall of the Berlin Wall, WAGO announced that they set up a new plant in Sondershausen, Thuringia, which had a special role amongst the newly founded production sites. One year after the announcement, operations in Sondershausen first started in a rented facility; since 1993, Wago has been producing in a newly built factory. In the following years, WAGO continuously invested into expanding operations in Sondershausen, with 200 million EUR invested and 13 expansions until 2022.[8] In 1999, a logistics centre was established, with which customers in Central Europe would be supplied directly from Sondershausen.[11] In 2022, WAGO announced the latest investment into the logistics centre of around 40 million EUR.[12]

In 2003, the company shares were bought back from Spirent PLC (formerly Bowthorpe), making WAGO into a family owned business again.[10] In the 2000s, WAGO further developed existing products, notably, they improved the miniaturisation of the picoMAX connector system in 2010, in which glass fiber-reinforced plastics PAA-GF were used.[5] In the same year, Sven Hohorst took over the position of managing director from his father Wolfgang Hohorst.[13] In summer 2012, WAGO expanded its headquarters investing 8 million EUR on a development centre in Minden.[14] In 2015, WAGO acquired a majority stake in the company M&M Software. The purchase of the previous development partner served the strategic orientation of the automation division.[15] In the same year, WAGO generated a revenue of 718,7 million EUR and had 5,996 employees.[16] In 2016, WAGO's communication centre, a customer and training centre, and a new stamping plant were completed. After one and a half years of construction and a total of 53 million EUR invested, this marked WAGO's latest investments around the headquarters in Minden.[14][17] In the beginning of 2021, Sven Hohorst retired from the operational business and moved to the advisory board. Heiner Lang took over as Chairman of the Management Board.[18]

Spring clamp terminal from WAGO