The new year brings some changes in our family business!
The new year brings some changes in our family business! Besides the redesigned logo and website, the most noticeable is certainly our new name: We are now called Kniggendorf - and no longer Kniggendorf + Kögler. There are several reasons for this.
First of all, Mr. Kögler left the company about 80 years ago. But there is something else behind the change of name.
A new legal framework
We want to make it clear that we are one company and, from now on, we will also be clearly visible to the outside world as a single entity. To this end, we have restructured the company: Since January 1, siblings Cathrin Kalthoff and Frederik Otto have been managing both the metal processing division and the security systems division as a managing director duo. In addition, a new holding company forms a common roof over the two companies - and this is also headed by the brother and sister and also their father Wilfried Otto.
So, there is a new legal construct for our company. And this also serves to express our unity. Because the previous separation was no longer up to date: After Cathrin Kalthoff and Frederik Otto started in the family business at the beginning of the new millennium, their father formed two legally separate entities within the company. If his children later had too different views of the path the company should take, they could have separated - the daughter with one company, the son with the other. You never know...
Together, not apart
But this did not happen. On the contrary! "We want to do this together - and we think we do it wonderfully together" the siblings agree. "We have one hundred percent trust in each other and can rely on each other completely - and that is infinitely valuable" both emphasize. At the same time, brother and sister are independent personalities, with individual strengths and qualities. But: "We complement each other incredibly well - and we think it's very important to show this togetherness to the outside world."
Frederik Otto explains, "It's a great added value and makes sense for the security technology sector, for example, when customers see: 'They're also doing something else! They're building it themselves - and they have the necessary know-how.'" The new structure also reflects the fact that we regularly develop and launch new products as a team, enabling us to respond quickly to individual customer requests. This has long been one of our strengths - and one reason for this is our unison.
Complete transparency
Strategy and planning are collaborative tasks for us. To this end, regular roundtable discussions take place, ensuring that everyone always has a complete overview. We live transparency! Father Otto is often present, and with his decades of experience he remains an important advisor in the company. Blood is thicker than water, as the proverb says. With the Kalthoff/Otto family, that's definitely true.
And speaking of family, we are confident that with the current organization we have also set the course for the years and decades to come, when the sixth generation will support us and follow at some point. "Slowly, our children are getting to the age where we too have done our first vacation jobs in our company. Let's see!" the siblings say with a smile. "We still have a little time - but we'll keep at it..."
Cathrin Kalthoff and Frederik Otto put it in a nutshell: "Kniggendorf - that's WE. Always. In all questions and in all decisions. It's great that with each other we have someone at our side for whom the company is just as much a purpose in life as it is for us. Now we have grown much closer together. And together we will continue on our way to a successful future!"
We love what we do - contact us and see for yourself!