SCHUNK Company Profile: History, Ownership, Plants, Products and Leadership

Oct 11

3 min read

Updated: 7 days ago

SCHUNK is a German family company that makes grippers for robots and clamping devices for machine tools, with about 3,500 employees and 33 foreign subsidiaries. Founded in 1945 as a mechanical workshop, it is now led by the third generation of the Schunk family. This profile sets out its history, ownership, plants, products and leadership.

SCHUNK at a Glance

Fact	Detail
Company	SCHUNK SE & Co. KG
Founded	1945, by Friedrich Schunk
Headquarters	Lauffen am Neckar, Germany
Employees	About 3,500
Revenue	EUR 515 million in 2019, the latest figure found
Subsidiaries	33 outside Germany
Ownership	Schunk family, third generation
Stock listing	None; privately held
Chief Executive Officer	Kristina I. Schunk

Company History

Friedrich Schunk opened a mechanical workshop in Lauffen am Neckar in 1945. His son Heinz-Dieter Schunk joined in 1964, and two years later the company introduced standardized chuck jaws for lathes, its first product line of its own. Hydraulic expansion toolholders followed in 1978. In 1982 SCHUNK presented its first standardized gripper for robots, which opened the second of its two main businesses.

Expansion abroad began in 1989 with subsidiaries in Belgium and Switzerland, and a US company was founded in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1992. Acquisitions added robotics and workholding specialists, among them amtec robotics in 2003 and the Swiss vise maker Gressel in 2014. In 2016 SCHUNK presented the Co-act JL1, a gripper for work alongside people, which won the Hermes Award in 2017.

Key milestones

1945: Founded in Lauffen am Neckar.
1966: Standardized chuck jaws.
1978: Hydraulic expansion toolholders.
1982: First standardized robot gripper.
1988: Tandem stationary workholding system.
1989: First foreign subsidiaries.
1992: US subsidiary founded.
2014: Gressel acquired.
2017: Hermes Award for the Co-act JL1 collaborative gripper.
2025 to 2026: New chief financial and chief sales officers appointed.

Plants

Country	Sites
Germany	Lauffen am Neckar, Brackenheim-Hausen, Mengen, St. Georgen im Schwarzwald and Cleebronn
United States	Morrisville, near Raleigh, North Carolina
Switzerland	Aadorf
Italy	Caravaggio
Mexico	El Marques

Products

Area	Products
Gripping systems	Robot grippers, rotary modules, linear units and quick-change systems
Collaborative gripping	Grippers for human-robot collaboration
Toolholding	Hydraulic expansion toolholders
Workholding	Chuck jaws, Tandem clamping systems, vises and magnetic clamping
Mechatronics	Mechatronic drive components

SCHUNK product reviews on All Things Cobots

Leadership

Name	Role
Kristina I. Schunk	Chief Executive Officer and chair of the management board
Timo Gessmann	Chief Technology Officer
Falk Baeurle	Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer, since December 2025
Karl Heckl	Chief Sales Officer, since April 2026

Henrik A. Schunk, her brother, is also named as a leader of the family company. Johannes Ketterer, the previous chief operating and sales officer, moved to the administrative board at the end of 2025.

Can You Invest in SCHUNK?

No. SCHUNK is a family-owned company with no listed shares.

Strengths and Challenges

Strengths

Recognized as a world market leader in gripping and clamping systems.
Two complementary businesses serving robots and machine tools.
Stable family ownership.

Challenges

Exposure to the machine tool and automotive cycles.
A largely new management team since late 2025.
Limited public financial disclosure.

Current Catalogue Coverage

Catalogue checked on 15 October 2026: 23 associated product records. The links below are representative entries, rather than a claim that every historical model is currently available.

SCHUNK PGN-plus-P 100