Hamburg, 08th June 2010 – The intralogistic company STILL celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.
“Innovation” – “Brand” – “People” – this triad reflects the most important factors for the success of the company founded as a repair shop for electric motors by Hans Still back in 1920. The chair of the managing board of STILL, Bert-Jan Knoef said: “Hans Still was soon to recognise that the increasing transportation of goods would require innovative logistics solutions. And, it would need the cover of a strong brand for every employee to identify with the brand and to continuously develop efficient solutions for the customers.” To reinforce this confidence in the strength of the STILL brand during each contact with the customer, Hans Still had already created a mobile service fleet in the forties. Today this orientation toward a strong service reflects in 1900 qualified service engineers and technicians all across Europe. The founder of the company was also early to recognise the effect of a uniform appearance of the service team on the market. With these approaches, he was ahead of his time and was soon able to develop international relationships with his customers.

STILL had achieved its initial success by building mobile power generators, but the real breakthrough came with the electric transport vehicles to handle the flow of material which was ever increasing during the years of the “Wirtschaftswunder” in the 1950’s. Over nine decades, STILL was always able to offer flexible and innovative solutions for internal transport of material with every milestone global logistics has passed. For example, the fork lift trucks made by STILL already met the stringent requirements on emissions of the California Test in the early seventies and faced the logistic challenges of upcoming container transport. With the beginning of the eighties STILL presented the first counter balance truck with hybrid technology worldwide. In the beginning of the new millennium STILL develops the futuristic RXX which included many of the innovations benefitting the current Still models. Today STILL offers expert knowledge consulting its customers in intralogistics, warehouse trucks, software applications and VNA solutions. “STILL controls complete fleets of industrial trucks and optimises all the processes in the warehouse”, says Knoef.

At STILL it is common knowledge that a brand can only be as strong as the people within it. This is why Still persistently follows a corporate philosophy based on partnership. Examples for this are the company’s sports teams or the social welfare institution of the company.
A big family party on the company premises in Hamburg inspired the employees and their families. “Once again the people that are the strength of the STILL brand, the employees and their relatives, will take the centre of the stage on this day”, says Knoef. And it reflects in everyday life: the high team spirit at STILL is always one of the first impressions customers and partners have when they come into contact with the STILL brand – irrespective of all changes in the organisational structure of the company or its owners.