Liebherr

Liebherr is a German-Swiss multinational equipment manufacturer based in Bulle, Switzerland, with its main production facilities and origins in Germany. Liebherr consists of over 130 companies organized into 11 divisions: earthmoving, mining, mobile cranes, tower cranes, concrete technology, maritime cranes, aerospace and transportation systems, machine tools and automation systems, domestic appliances, and components. It has a worldwide workforce over 42,000, with nine billion euros in revenue for 2017. By 2007, it was the world's largest crane company. Established in 1949 by Hans Liebherr in Kirchdorf an der Iller, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, the business is still entirely owned by the Liebherr family. Isolde and Willi Liebherr, Hans' daughter and son, respectively, are the chief executive and chairman of the Bulle, Switzerland–based Liebherr-International AG, and several other family members are actively involved in corporate management. In 2005, Forbes magazine listed them as billionaires. In 1974, the Franklin Institute awarded Hans Liebherr the Frank P. Brown Medal. Hans Liebherr was drafted for military service in World War II. During the war, Liebherr served with the Ulm Pioneer Battalion 101, which was subordinate to the 101st Light Infantry Division and fought under Army Group South in the German-Soviet War. After the war, he started by building affordable tower cranes; Liebherr expanded into making aircraft parts—it is a significant supplier to European Airbus airplane manufacturer—and commercial chiller displays and freezers, as well as domestic refrigerators. The group also produces some of the world's biggest mining and digging machinery, including loaders, excavators, and extreme-sized dump trucks. The T 282 B is the world's second-largest truck (after BelAZ 75710). The group's nine-axle mobile crane, the LTM 11200–9.1—with a telescopic boom—in 2007 received the heavy-lifting industry's Development of the Year award for being the world's most powerful example of such a machine.