OTTO can look back on more than 140 years of a very eventful company history. For example, after it was founded in 1881, the small family business survived two world wars largely undamaged. Even two relocations of the entire family business couldn’t stop the development into one of the most well-known providers of sealants and adhesives in all of Europe today.
In 1881, Germany’s capital city was marked by the industrial age and innovative technologies, such as the first telephone network or the first electrically powered tram in the world. At the same time, the cornerstone was laid for today’s Hermann Otto GmbH in Berlin. Our company founder Hermann Otto initially focused mainly the production of window putty, the product range continuously expanded over time and made the little backstreet business into a successful medium-sized family-owned and operated company.
The 1930s were characterised by huge economic challenges as well as the National Socialists coming into power. It was a difficult time in which Dr Herbert Nath, grandson of the company’s founder, took over the Berlin putty factory in 1932 and was able to protect the business from the wide-ranging consequences of the Second World War.
Germany is also characterised by the economic miracle. The economic upswing continues, the technical progress can be seen everywhere and the still young Federal Republic of Germany celebrates the World Cup title in football. Nevertheless and as a result of the political situation, Dr Herbert Nath decides to move to Bavaria in 1954, where he founds a new company in Munich. Dr Herbert Nath is energetically supported by one employee from “the first hour”. Together with Jürgen Lohre, who had been working at the company since 1 November 1961 and who still works as an advisor at OTTO to this day, the cornerstone was laid for silicone production. This was the decisive step towards successfully establishing OTTO as an increasingly globally operating special provider.
This was not only accompanied by the increasing expansion of production capacities at the Munich location, but also the expansion of the company's own production area to the Munich district of Giesing. In 1970, the long-standing employee of Dr Nath, Jürgen Lohre, was finally brought on as a partner and was appointed as the new managing director. It was the right decision as would already be proven just five years later. Because OTTO was able to generate a revenue of one million DM for the first time in the company’s history.
Due to OTTO's growing need for space, which was constantly increasing over the years, the production was ultimately relocated from Munich to Fridolfing in Upper Bavaria. At the new location, not far from the Austrian border and just 30 km from Salzburg, a new chapter is opened in the company’s history. This made it possible to tremendously increase the production capacity for silicones, sealants and adhesives over the years. In 1980, Dr Herbert Nath's oldest son Herbert Nath takes over his position. The attorney leads the company for over twenty years as the managing partner with great success. To this day, the great grandson of Hermann Otto is active as the chairman of the advisory board and ensures that the ambitious goals have always been achieved in the new millennium.
On 01 Jan. 2011, Herbert Nath handed over his own company shares to his two children, thereby ensuring that OTTO remains within the family. Since then, the siblings Dipl.-Volksw. Matthias Nath and M.A. Claudia Heinemann-Nath have been leading the company as partners in the 5th generation already.
Especially because specialised trade has always been one of the most important main sales channels of OTTO, they are also considered competent partners in the area of sales, consultation and expertise. Because of this, not only are traditional and digital communication means provided as well as uniformly designed elements for sales promotion at the POS. A comprehensive consultation is also relied on – be it at the customer’s location on site through more than 50 sales representatives or as part of internal seminars and individually tailored training sessions at the Fridolfing location. As a result, a new logistics and training centre was inaugurated in the autumn of 2015 where not only can up to 40 participants be informed of the latest product solutions from OTTO and their application at the same time. The supply of global markets is also coordinated from there in order to always ensure the optimal product availability for the customer.
2020: As part of the continuous expansion of the production capacity at the Fridolfing location, a new, fully automatic production facility will be put into operation in the district of Kaltenbrunn. As an important building block of a comprehensive sustainability concept, the production line was developed specifically for the new plant, is considered the most modern of its kind and should make a decisive contribution to further reducing the amount of waste and emissions. The heart of the system is made up of two striking silos as well as an ultra-modern mixer for compounding, which are crucial to the overall product quality.
