The two managing directors Helbig and Groz talking during a break, 1985: PCs have not yet been introduced, nor has the smoking ban in the workplace.
Before Gerhard Groz joined Franke, he actually had completely different plans: He wanted to set up his own business, so he studied production engineering in Berlin and later business administration in Heidelberg. Berlin-born Michael Helbig shared his entrepreneurial spirit and joined Franke in 1982 at the instigation of Groz, a friend from university. Neither of them imagined that the pair would shape Franke GmbH for decades to come as managing directors.
A friend of his future father-in-law introduced Gerhard Groz to Franke. He had a meeting with Egon Franke – “quite informally on his balcony”, as he recalled. With the prospect of succeeding Egon Franke, Groz initially started as an employee at Franke and got to know the company extensively as the boss’s “right-hand man”. At the end of 1976, he took over the management. 1981 he brought Michael Helbig, his companion from his Berlin days, into the company as an authorised representative and Sales Manager. He valued Helbig as a “brilliant engineer” and made him the second managing director in 1982. Helbig recognised a considerable need for modernisation right from the start. “The main entrance door still had a bell like a shop,” he remembered. “I thought, what on earth is this place?” With his characteristic decisiveness, speed and confidence, Michael Helbig implemented numerous changes and innovations. Despite some differences in mentality between Groz, from Swabia, and Berlin-native Helbig, the two complemented each other perfectly and faced many challenges together: The conversion of the company to computerised systems, the establishment of new agencies at home and abroad, overcoming a serious economic crisis in 1987/88, when the company, which had grown considerably in terms of personnel, suddenly had to contend with a sharp drop in orders due to the decline of the European textile industry.
Engineering expert Helbig initiated important innovations on the product side: He was instrumental in the development of Franke thin sec-tion bearings, aluminium linear guides for linear movements and exceptionally quiet-running bearings for CT scanners. He used his sales talent to demonstrate a CT bearing to Siemens managers. It broke after just 10 seconds, but, he recalled, “the ten seconds were so good, the bearing was so quiet” that Franke got its first order from Siemens for CT bearings. Gerhard Groz said the complex exchange of wire rings on CT scanners all over the world was “like open-heart surgery”. Franke always focusses on the customer – a close business relationship with Siemens developed that continues to this day. The company is still the world market leader in this field today.
When Gerhard Groz and Michael Helbig retired in 2007, they handed over a well-positioned, healthy company. Gerhard Groz was full of joy “that everything went so well” and even Michael Helbig from Berlin did not regret his move here “for even a minute”, because “Swabia”, he concluded, “is great”.//