Rehau founder Helmut Wagner passes away
Wagner, who was 95, began the plastic parts making business in 1948. January 27, 2021 Canadian Plastics
Helmut Wagner. Photo Credit: Rehau Group
Plastics pioneer Helmut Wagner, the founder of Germany-based plastic product maker Rehau Group, died on Jan. 24 in Switzerland at age 95.
Wagner founded the family business in 1948 in the city of Rehau, Upper Franconia, Germany. In 1962, the company’s first plant outside of Europe was opened in Montreal. The firm works in the fields of construction, industry, and as an automotive supplier, and currently employs about 20,000 people in more than 170 locations.
“The founding of the company…marked the beginning of the manufacture of products made of polymer materials and thus the success story of a family-owned company that is still strongly characterised by the pioneering spirit of the company founder,” Rehau said in a Jan. 26 statement.
Obituary: Rehau founder Helmut Wagner
Helmut Wagner, the founder of Rehau Verwaltungszentrale AG, died Jan. 24. He was 95.
Wagner began the business, which is now the holding company of Rehau Group, in 1948 with three employees and one extruder in the German town of Rehau. They began by producing shoe welting, garden hoses and automotive components.
The product line kept growing. Within 10 years, Rehau also was extruding vinyl windows and magnetic gasket systems for refrigerator doors.
Over the decades, the company added production for car bumpers, cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) pipe radiant floor heating, medical tubing and components, unplasticized PVC windows, polypropylene sewer pipes, a brand of PEX pipe called PEXa for geothermal systems, and more.