Preamble

Recently l have been asked for the single most important factor that helped the Heubachs for so long to break the rule of the typical three generation lifecycle of family owned operations. I believe that one single reason is not sufficient to explain the complexity of such history, but I am convinced that the joy of innovating and pioneering was the strongest source of energy which lit Heubach's way through 600 years of entrepreneurial history.

With this light to follow and innovation as a common denominator, each generation of Heubach employees left its individual footprint of innovation on the long path towards the 3rd millennium. It reflects their difference in character as much as that of changing historical environments.
It was the early Heubachs who picked up the ancient art of glass making in the 14th Century during Europe's Middle Ages.
It was the Greiners (maternal line) and Johann Simon Heubach who, during Europe's glamorous period of enlightenment, were among the small group of researchers to discover the secret of porcelain making in Europe.
It was Johann Gabriel Heubach, who developed the art of making porcelain dolls and opened foreign markets for the first time from France over Britain to the Americans.
It was Julius Westen and Eduard Heuäcker (maternal line) who pioneered the industrial production of pigments and laid the foundation for Heubach's present activities.
It was the employees of the Langelsheim operation of the late 19th Century who had been selected as the state's model of advanced technology by its ruler, the Earl of Brunswick.
It was Friedrich Louis Heubach, who operated the first steam engine in his state and received a gold medal for extraordinary pigment quality by the Habsburg emperor, Franz Joseph, at the 1873 World Fair in Vienna.
It was Carl Friedrich Heubach, who increased the pigment production of his operation ten fold at the turn of the century by innovating a process technology that was far ahead of its time.
It was Hans Joachim Heubach, whose firm commitment to technology was instrumental in rebuilding his company three times during his lifetime and attracted leading scientists like Franz Munk (Kubelka Munk Theory).

It is today the abundance of know-how and patents of more than 100 technology driven chemists and engineers at Heubach's research centers in Europe, Asia and the Americas, which paved the way to Heubach´s globalization in the 1980´s and Heubach´s diversification in the 1990´s. They share with all other Heubach employees of today the traditional excitement for new technologies which shine in so many of Heubach's brilliant colorants. My thank goes to them for making these pigments and to our customers for applying them for a brighter and more colorful world.