Employee Story Uwe Kopf, ­Head of Distribution The exchange of knowledge creates progress. Success comes from good cooperation

My name is Uwe Kopf, I am married, have 3 grown children and live in Bad Buchau. After studying Electrical Engineering, I worked in Development at AKO plants in Wangen (later Diehl Controls) for 6 years. In 1986 I started my journey with the Wölfle company. This trip was always interesting, had many beautiful days, days with unexpected surprises, both positive and negative, and days that could have been better avoided. I was responsible for Sales, Development and Construction at Wölfle until 2009. Then I started my job as a Sales Manager, which I still carry on today. My next step in my career will be retirement, if there is a vacancy I will accept this challenge.

  • 34 Jahre

    at Wölfle

  • Seit 1999

    Sales Manager

  • Profi

    for Sales, Development And Construction

We have achieved a lot during this time, and in a short space of time have grown from small beginnings into a well-known and reputable supplier for the Construction, Agricultural Machinery and Logistics sectors.  Liebherr in the neighbourhood has always been one of our important customers. For the Liebherr Litronic excavator series, which was first presented at BAUMA in 1989, we developed electrical equipment that was completely new for the time, with a fully electronic display and control panel based on LCD and a circuit board-based central electrical system. In the past, Linde only optionally equipped its forklifts with heaters; we have been a supplier here since the early 1990s. Today Linde is our largest customer in the HV/AC area. That was not foreseeable at the beginning, but good customer service and technical expertise have a lasting effect. We had our first stand at the world's largest construction machinery fair, BAUMA, back in 1992. At the time, a competitor threatened to close our stand.  He accused us of violating his design, which is an industrial property right that is registered in the patent office. We had to remodel our stand overnight and replace the air nozzle in question. We won the ensuing proceedings and are selling our nozzle, item no. 299017, to this day. In order to gain a foothold in the Bus sector, we started a cooperation with Webasto / Spheros in 1995. This collaboration lasted until 2008. The collaboration with our customer Iveco Bus emerged from this cooperation. In order to implement complex air distribution using a cam disc for a Renault bus, we needed an intelligent actuator. At that time there was no suitable part on the market, so our own ISA actuator was created in 1996, which is still used today 20 years later, including in new applications.

These are just a few examples from a long time ago, there are many more. Nobody cares, you will think. Yes, but the present is the past of tomorrow and the present is always supported by the past. We are a young, successful company and we are good and successful by tradition. But we are only good if we all do our best every day. Half speed ahead is not enough, the risk of losing touch or being overtaken is too great. We have to provide solutions, not explanations for existing problems. If we take this to heart, someone can write again in 20 years' time that the basis for a successful future has been laid today.