Balingen is located between Stuttgart and Lake Constance. With around 35,000 inhab­i­tants, it is the second largest city in the “Zoller­nalb” district. It is known for its “Zollern” castle and numerous inno­v­a­tive, small and medium-sized compa­nies. One of them is Goldfuß engi­neering GmbH. With 45 employees, the company special­izes in automa­tion solu­tions. And now, they are contributing their exper­tise to the Uhlmann Group, as Goldfuß engi­neering has been part of it as an inde­pen­dently oper­ating Group Company since January 17, 2025.

Building block for full automa­tion

Karl Geiger has been a sole signa­tory at Goldfuß since September 2018 and now serves as Managing Director since the acqui­si­tion. “We develop and manu­fac­ture high-quality, customer-specific automa­tion solu­tions for pack­aging tech­nology and labo­ra­tory automa­tion for the phar­ma­ceu­tical industry, medical tech­nology, crop science, the food industry and indus­trial appli­ca­tions,” he says, summa­rizing the company’s complex range of tasks. Here, customer-specific actu­ally means tailor-made, usually indi­vidual systems. “We are closing the gap by supplying the missing building block for full automa­tion,” explains Geiger.

Goldfuß systems enable customers to operate their produc­tion lines unmanned. “They can take over tasks day and night that are too diffi­cult, monot­o­nous or even hazardous to health.” This includes, for example, handling heavy cartons at different heights or working with carcino­genic substances. While a high output rate is required in the pack­aging sector, the focus in the labo­ra­tory is on safety and trace­ability. The field of envi­ron­ment automa­tion is a core compe­tence of Goldfuß engi­neering. Here, maga­zines and bunkers are filled with pack­aging mate­rials. The degree of automa­tion no longer ends at the removal of pallets but extends to auto­matic pallet exchange and connec­tion to driver­less trans­port systems.

Concen­trated exper­tise

These are high require­ments that demand a strong devel­op­ment effort. Geiger empha­sizes: “We are very proud of our team and work exclu­sively with qual­i­fied special­ists. This is needed because we have a very high level of vertical inte­gra­tion and do a lot of things ourselves.” Specif­i­cally, this means that every­thing is carried out in-house, from the feasi­bility study in the company’s own tech­nology center to the system design and complete automa­tion to customer accep­tance and after-sale.

“To be able to imple­ment such projects effi­ciently, we have a fast and flex­ible team,” says Geiger. The team usually only has between 12 and 18 months before a project must be completed. Goldfuß engi­neering supplies its tailor-made systems to customers world­wide: about half to Germany and around 25 percent to other Euro­pean coun­tries, the rest to Asia and the USA, among other places.

That the company now belongs to the Uhlmann Group is only logical for Karl Geiger. After all, the compa­nies are linked by a long-standing tech­nology part­ner­ship. He says: “The acqui­si­tion is a win for everyone: We can supply the right automa­tion for the pack­aging lines of the Group Compa­nies and now have strong part­ners at our side. In addi­tion, we are active in the same indus­tries and markets and can thus make better use of existing customer contacts.”

Swabian mentality

The inte­gra­tion process into the Uhlmann Group is currently underway, which is expected to be completed in two to three years. Goldfuß will remain active in the market inde­pen­dently, as well as act as a supplier within the Uhlmann Group and work towards achieving strategic goals. The focus of the inte­gra­tion is on the transfer of tech­nology and know-how as well as the expan­sion of joint busi­ness activ­i­ties. In addi­tion, syner­gies can be lever­aged, for example with suppliers, banks and insur­ance compa­nies, as well as in the area of sustain­ability.

In addi­tion, the compa­nies have a similar mentality, Geiger under­lines: “It is a huge advan­tage that we are a Swabian family busi­ness. We get along very well with the Group Compa­nies here in the region and have the same way of thinking. You can feel the Swabian spirit.” The geograph­ical prox­imity also helps: “We can quickly reach Uhlmann in Laupheim or KOCH in Pfalz­grafen­weiler. This means that a personal exchange on site is also possible at short notice. But the coop­er­a­tion with the other compa­nies in the Group, such as Cremer, Wonder and Axito, is also absolutely coop­er­a­tive and effi­cient.”

A fair, honest and open approach to his colleagues is a matter of course for Karl Geiger’s daily work. “I have expe­ri­enced this respectful and coop­er­a­tive approach from colleagues across all Group Compa­nies. It’s always been like that with us, we help each other.” He is even more pleased that his employees now have good long-term prospects for the future.

The acqui­si­tion is also well received by customers and the feed­back is consis­tently posi­tive. Geiger often hears that the two compa­nies are a good match: “Insofar, we did every­thing right.”