Vossloh

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Vossloh AG

Company type	Aktiengesellschaft
Traded as	FWB: VOS
Industry	Rail infrastructure
Founded	1888; 136 years ago (1888)
Founder	Eduard Vossloh
Headquarters	Werdohl , Germany
Key people	Oliver Schuster (CEO) Rüdiger Grube (Chairman of the supervisory board)
Products	Broad range of rail fastening systems, concrete sleepers, switch systems as well as services related to the maintenance of rails and turnouts
Revenue	918,3 Mio.€ (December 2017)[1]
Number of employees	3,685 (31.03.2017)[1]
Website	vossloh.com

Vossloh AG is a rail technology company based in Werdohl in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The SDAX-listed group has achieved sales of around €930 million in 2016 and, as of 2017^[update], had more than 4,000 employees.^[2]

Vossloh can trace its origins back to the late 19th century and Edward Vossloh, a blacksmith who secured component manufacturing work for the Royal Prussian Railway in the 1880s. In the following decades, the company expanded into the production of general hardware, including decorative items and lampholders for electric lighting. The company has long been based at Werdolh, though this has not always been straightforward; the company’s facilities there were bombed during the latter half of the Second World War. Several subsidiary companies were lost following the conclusion of the conflict. However, Vossloh survived, launching production of fluorescent tube holders at a plant in Lüdenscheid in 1946. In 1967, it obtained a license to make a new tension clamp rail fastening. During the late 1980s, considerable reorganisation was undertaken, management outside of the Vossloh family was brought in, rival company Schwabe GmbH was acquired and, on 1 December 1989, Vossloh-Werke GmbH became a public stock company or Aktiengesellschaft (AG).

By the twenty-first century, Vossloh had developed into a global market leader both for rail fasteners and switch systems; a series of acquisitions in the 1990s and 2000s had greatly bolsters its presence in the rail sector. In North America, Vossloh became the leading manufacturer of concrete railway ties. It has offered a globally unique grinding technology, so-called high-speed grinding, for track maintenance. Vossloh previously owned three business units for Electrical Systems, Locomotives, and Rail Vehicles; these were sold in 2015, 2020 and 2016 respectively. The brand name "Vossloh" is still used for several products that are not, or are no longer, related to Vossloh AG. For example, Vossloh locomotives are since 2020 have been produced by the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC).^[3]

Its customers are generally public and private railway companies and network operators, as well as regional and municipal transport companies. Since its restructuring in the mid 2010s, Vossloh has been focusing on target markets China, the US, Russia and Western Europe. Important Vossloh production sites are in Germany, France, Luxembourg, Poland and Scandinavia. In addition, the group has subsidiaries in Asia, North and South America, Australia and Russia.^[2][4]