The company Joh. Franz König GmbH, founded in 1839 as a painting business with glass trading, is an established glass wholesaler in Cologne. Today, the family business is managed by Cornelius Trimborn, the sixth generation, and the family succession is already being planned.
In addition to trading in flat glass, Glas König today produces cut-to-size glass and carries out processing on customer request, which is delivered by the company's own fleet of vehicles within a radius of 100 km around Cologne.
The company currently employs 32 people in the industrial and commercial sectors, who work in the areas of cutting, grinding, commissioning, vehicle fleet, customer advice, order acceptance and order preparation.
Partner of the trade
Glas König's range of products is primarily aimed at glaziers, metalworkers, carpenters and exhibition stand builders. Cornelius Trimborn: "For craftsmen, two things are crucial today: high product quality as well as fast and, above all, reliable order processing, even for batch sizes of one. And that's exactly what we specialise in."
Cornelius Trimborn and his team see themselves as problem solvers and try to find individual solutions including the required fittings. This applies to all areas of interior design such as doors, partition walls, showers and glass furniture.
In addition, balustrades and glass railings are also part of the company's range of services (www.glaskoenig.de). In addition, Glas König offers an extensive range of fittings from the companies Dorma Glas, Pauli & Sohn, Willach, MWE, OnLevel and others.
Joh. Franz König GmbH
Craftsmanship is a top priority at Glas König.
The digitalisation of the glass industry also brings a whole range of opportunities for us as a medium-sized company, and we are taking advantage of them.
Matthias Rehberger / GW
Modern plant technology in use
Laminated safety glass up to 4700 mm is cut in the in-house cutting department. The glass warehouse includes all common types of glass and laminated safety glass from two to 20 mm, and a total of more than 15,000 square metres of glass is available at all times. This enables a fast realisation of customer orders.
State-of-the-art processing techniques with water jet and CNC ensure highly precise drilling, surface, edge and corner cut-outs with minimal tolerances at the glass specialists and enable the production and processing of almost all free forms. This dimensional accuracy is particularly appreciated by glass and metal construction specialists.
Customers can send both a file with the desired shape or a model.
Matthias Rehberger / GW
A look into the production of Glas König with the grinding shop, the "heart" of the company.
Niklas Trimborn explains: "We digitise the models and, on request, our customers also receive a production-ready file (.dxf format) with the cutting data. This makes it easy to reproduce the glass pane at a later date, for example in the event of a glass breakage. And this is increasingly in demand. The digitalisation of the industry also brings a whole range of opportunities for us as a medium-sized company, which we use, as this example shows."
Own laser engraving now also on offer
In addition to edge processing, surface finishing by engraving or sandblasting can also be produced in the company's own grinding shop. Customers can have almost all their wishes fulfilled here.
The latest addition to the machinery of the Cologne glass specialists is a laser that is to be used for engravings in small formats.
Cornelius Trimborn: "For the success of our company it is important to recognise the signs of the times and to remain curious." He focuses on two things in particular: A high level of adaptability through constant innovation and strong staff loyalty through good working conditions and involvement of all in development and decision-making processes.
His goal is to make the company resilient in order to meet the demands of the market. In doing so, the current world and economic situation requires full attention to make a company future-proof.
It was important to me to comprehensively plan the upcoming handover of the company to the next generation so that it would work out.
Matthias Rehberger / GW
The successors are waiting in the wings
At Glas König, the next generation is also about to take over, and the company should of course be stable and solid. The sons Niklas and Kester would like to work in responsible positions in the company, with the aim of running the company as brothers in a few years.
Joh. Franz König GmbH
The company's equipment includes CNC machines and water jet technology.
Niklas Trimborn is a trained design technician and glazier; he is currently working in the commercial area with the support of his father and is contributing his knowledge of digital data processing to the company. And son Kester is a flat glass technologist; he would like to take over the production area later.
"A successful company handover is not a matter of course; it is (hard) work and requires a lot of thought and good planning," Cornelius Trimborn explains. "And above all, it also requires a high level of commitment from those involved. In our company, we faced up to this function early on and drew up a long-term induction plan to enable a smooth handover. I am confident that we will implement this successfully."
Cornelius Trimborn is naturally proud that both sons are in the family business and want to continue it. Thus, the 7th generation of the 184-year-old traditional company is well prepared and raring to go.
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