Josef Eibl GmbH is a traditional company in Lower Bavaria (Germany), that has existed for more than 100 years. Josef Eibl is the fourth generation to lead the company, while the fifth is already on the starting blocks. His oldest daughter is currently completing master’s training, and his son his apprenticeship.

Its own patents, tonnes of aluminium, solid wood processing, Varicor experts – life proceeds at a different pace at Josef-Eibl-Strasse. But one step at a time: on its property in Loizenkirchen district, from 1905 the family produces wagon wheels, hay carts and feed grids for cattle sheds for the surrounding farmers.

Josef Eibl Senior also learns the joinery trade to supply private customers in the surrounding area with windows, doors and furniture. In 1988, with Josef Eibl Junior, the family business enters the fourth generation.

Almost at the same time, the joinery starts working increasingly with the mineral material Varicor. Josef Junior makes the contract before even joining the company – at the tender age of 16.

He learns more than just contract negotiations: What does cooperation with wholesalers look like? How do you rate suppliers? Most importantly, how do other markets work? Josef Junior builds a new building in the industrial area, using state-of-the-art, but still conventional technology.

Successful partnership

That changes in the year 2003 with the opening ceremony of the Homag’s Competence Center in Denkendorf. Eibl receives an invitation to attend the opening ceremony of the Bavarian competence center and drives up with a friend – without any intention to buy, without any premonition.

The master joiner drives up again the next day and buys the exhibited Venture 5 as it stands in the showroom. It is the first machine ever sold in Denkendorf.

Josef Eibl still doesn’t know what he’s going to do with it. He certainly doesn’t know that it’s the starting point for a successful partnership. When the machine arrives, the Homag technician is initially flabbergasted. A new machine purchased, without any training.

But Josef Eibl is sure that he already has the CNC specialist in-house. He quickly trims a front door frame in a segment arch shape – according to the technician, this is outside the machine’s range of possibilities!

The technician is thrilled, Josef Eibl too. Little has changed in that. Today, the master joiner from Lower Bavaria still raves about how, with the CNC, he can get zinc plating that is so precise that it takes grooves to get glue in between at all. Or that his employees cut hidden cable ducts for integrated lighting concepts into wooden tables.

System solutions

Over time, the company gets more and more Homag machines; today there are 13. Why are there so many? Because the machines are real growth factors. “No company has taken me as far as Homag,” says Josef Eibl.

The first storage system in 2013, in particular, is a decisive step.The entire operating structure changes. The range of customers then grows with the machine pool. Step by step, the company moves away from the portfolio of a classic joinery.

Instead, the company in Lower Bavaria supplies customers throughout Germany and beyond with wash basins and system solutions: from cruise ships, through state buildings and clinics to airports. Among other things, Munich’s highest wash basin comes from the Eibl joinery, and the wash basins in Neuschwanstein Castle too – Josef Eibl is virtually a Bavarian court supplier!

And he’s an inventor too. When a highly complex shop construction order came in a few years ago, the challenges piled up before Eibl: the premises were still being used for other purposes; neither measurements nor work preparation were possible.

In addition, the time frame was more than tight. His solution: complete production in the joinery; in the shop, his people would then simply hang the individual parts on the wall with rails. The only problem was that there was no suitable rail on the market.

But this didn’t stop the master carpenter. He used a random contact at an aluminium plant, worked day and night to get the perfect shape, had the appropriate tools produced and accepted the 3-tonne minimum purchase.

The patented Eilox assembly system was ready – one of the three main pillars of Eibl alongside Varicor and the joinery.

Eibl spirit

Josef Eibl GmbH is in demand not only as a supplier, but also as a system provider: custom-made mirrored cabinets for retirement homes, designed in such a way that exactly eight items go onto a Euro pallet; media columns for public facilities co-developed by Eibl, which are delivered with the complete electrical installation; ergonomic endoscope sinks that radically simplify the work process – Eibl brings innovative solutions to series production time and again.

The Eibl spirit is the decisive factor. Employees should enjoy working together, and take responsibility. This produces the best possible result for the customer – and success follows on its own, Josef Eibl is convinced.

One employee is responsible for a project, from start to finish. Every employee can work with every machine, participates in the decision-making process and assumes responsibility. Josef Eibl allows himself to be persuaded.

Going digital

Josef Eibl is a realist. Even his company, which rarely must look for new employees, will experience the shortage of skilled workers on day X. The important thing is to be prepared, with digital solutions that support skilled or weaker employees so that they can make a valuable contribution.

Even the next generation is being made fit for the future, as the business already is: unwelcome investments, such as a suction device, heating and compressed air, are up-to-date, and the roof has photo-voltaic panels. In the end, there is only one question: which customer problem can the business solve next?

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