Continued female control of Goldhofer Fahrzeugwerk was secured a couple of years ago when Ruth Maria Goldhofer returned to work with the family-owned special transporter manufacturer.
The company has been run by Ruth’s mother, Karoline Goldhofer, since the death of Karoline’s husband, Alois Goldhofer, in 1981. Alois Goldhofer had founded the company back in 1946 in Memmingen, Germany.
Karoline, who is now in her mid-70s, remains owner and head of the company. Ruth, who came back to the company in late 1997 after several years abroad, is general manager.
Many small and medium sized German enterprises have struggled to retain their family-owned status into the next generation, causing some turbulence across German industry. Goldhofer, however, looks healthy. It has been a good year for the company: turnover increased from DM 85m ($47m) for the year to July 1998 to DM110m ($61m) for the year to July 1999.
Goldhofer of Germany lays claim to one of the broadest product offerings, with more than 250 types of special vehicle in production.
The production programme includes: Tandem and lowbed trailers with drawbar equipment, available with two to five axles and payloads ranging from 6t to 80t.
A range of semi lowloaders and combination systems, for payloads up to 150t, with Goldhofer’s two-circuit forced steering system with air suspension.
Flatbed semitrailers and self-steering rear bogies for transporting long loads such as bridge elements, or concrete or steel beams.
Heavy modular systems with swing axles and hydraulic axle compensation of up to 600mm.
Special vehicles such as crane ballast dollies, self- propelled transporters with hydrostatic drive and electronic multi-way steering.
Goldhofer also manufactures aircraft tractors, a sector which generates about 20% of its turnover.
Karoline and Ruth Goldhofer agree that Goldhofer product has never been the cheapest on the market but they place much emphasis on customer service. It is rare that vehicles are supplied “off the peg”, says Karoline Goldhofer. “Most of the time we have produced special constructions in accordance with the individual requirements of the customers,” she says. From the basic model of a lowloader, more than 480 different vehicles can be built.
Among recent clients for special transporters is Emmert International of the USA which, previously, has built its own dollies and hydraulic lifting devices for its heavy transportation projects. To take on even more heavy-duty work, Emmert placed a contract in May for a 23 axle line Goldhofer THP/SL system. This equipment can be coupled both longitudinally or diagonally to carry up to 34t per axle line. The modular system removes the need for individual swing axle units by having hydraulic axle compensation and hydromechanic two-circuit forced steering with a steering angle of up to 55O.
Van Seumeren of the Netherlands, which already has numerous Goldhofer transporters in its fleet, added a further 42 axle lines of Goldhofer modules earlier this year, increasing its transport capacity by 1,300t.
