When Wilfried Neuhaus-Gallade took over as managing director of JD Neuhaus in 1986, he became the seventh generation of his family to head the company founded in 1745 as a smithy by Johann Diederich Neuhaus. In the early days, the company produced wheel jacks for horse-drawn carts. From these origins it moved into hoist production.
The foundations for today’s company as the world’s leading specialist in pneumatic hoists were laid in 1952, when J. Diedrich Neuhaus was in charge. He substituted an air motor for the traditional chain blocks and thus gave JDN a technical advantage in safety-critical applications.
By 1986, the company needed restructuring and a new direction. Coal mining was the core market for JDN air hoists for many years, but with the decline of that industry the company needed to find new markets in offshore, shipbuilding and general industrial applications.
Neuhaus-Gallade set up a worldwide sales network and founded subsidiaries in the USA, France, England and Singapore, and pushed exports to above 70% of the company’s turnover.
In addition to his work as a board member of the German trade association the VDMA and the vice-president of the Chinese Industry and Trade Association, Neuhaus-Gallade is the only figure in the materials handling industry to be a member of the Henokiens Association, for which the membership criteria are continuous trading for 200 years and still in the ownership and management of the founding family.
