Helmut Stauf Set for expansion

Helmut Stauf (1934-1998) was also called "Mister WFR" because of the great success he had with his solvent-bearing parquet adhesives.

Under the aegis of Helmut Stauf, who joined the company in 1961, this course was constantly pursued further. The products were consistently geared to the needs of the construction industry. The company STAUF developed into a leading enterprise in the floor adhesives domain. The parquet adhesive "WFR" on a synthetic resin-solvent bas and the dispersion-based "M2A" line caused a sudden development in production capacities in the sixties and early seventies. At the end of the eighties Helmut Stauf reacted to the more demanding requirements imposed by user and consumer protection with the types "Rapid M2A-712" and "Rapid M2A-720" on a polyvynil acetate base. Other improvements in gluing parquet were achieved with an adhesive on a polyurethane base. Furthermore Helmut Stauf introduced an extensive range of accessories in order to expand the product range to form a harmonised system for reliable parquet and floor covering work.

Product range The continuous further development of the adhesives assured market success.   Frankfurter Strasse A familiar picture: the STAUF adhesives factory in the centre of Siegen. After almost 175 years at the same location, the company's head office was relocated to Wilnsdorf for reasons of space.

Already in the early seventies it had become necessary to undertake a major conversion of the production facilities in Siegen. But this exhausted the extension possibilities in Siegen. In particular the storage capacities had been fully used up for some time. When, in the mid nineties, the facilities would have had to have been expanded again, Helmut Stauf decided to erect a new adhesives factory in ohe "Lehnscheid" industrial estate in Wilnsdorf and to close down the Siegen plant. But these plans were interrupted by the sudden death of Helmut Stauf in August 1998. From one day to the next the family concern hadto be reorganised. Siegrid Stauf's wife, who had worked in the company for years as one of its authorised officers, took ofer the management together with the older son Wolfgang Stauf.       Expansion The newly constructed storehouse towers over the the old shops in the foreground.   Improvisation During ongoing production the old shops were "built over". Fabrication In the seventies: view of a section of the production shop for solvent adhesives.