German company celebrates its 125th anniversary in Tianjin

German company, Flender, celebrated its 125th anniversary in Beichen Economic & Technological Development Area, Tianjin, on Friday.

Having rooted and developed in the Beichen district for 28 years, the company has undergone 10 consecutive rounds of capital increase and expansion in China.

"With a total investment of 3 billion yuan ($413.8 million) and an annual output value of about 5 billion yuan, Flender stands as the largest gear and generator manufacturing base outside Germany," said Andreas Evertz, CEO of Flender Group.

"We set up China branch in Tianjin in 1996...eyeing the fast development pace, we would have come even earlier," he said.

Evolving into the group's China headquarters and the sole R&D base for mechanical transmissions in the Asia-Pacific region, the company is a key foreign-funded enterprise in Beichen as well as in Tianjin.

Its presence has catalyzed the clustering of numerous upstream and downstream enterprises in Beichen, making an irreplaceable contribution to the region's development, local authorities noted.

"From an initial small workshop with just a dozen employees to now spanning over 255,000 square meters with a workforce exceeding 2,000, our Tianjin company has evolved into the largest gear manufacturing base for Flender Group globally," said Gou Jianhui, chairman and CEO of Flender China.

Flender China has attracted a clustering of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, achieving a localization rate of over 90 percent, he said.