Our history

Pirmasens and the region around Pirmasens have been the metropolis for shoe production in Germany.

Still today there are some well-known shoe manufacturers, which have their main office and produce at and around Pirmasens. In 1949 Ernst Mohrbach started his production for shoe machinery in his parental home at Rieschweiler. During the years of the economic miracle the shoes market in Germany exploded and with this also the demand for shoe machinery. In 1957 Ernst Mohrbach founded the machine factory Ernst Mohrbach KG.

More and more shoe manufacturers appreciated the innovative machinery for shoe production and so the name Mohrbach was known well at all German shoe manufacturers, also at adidas. Mohrbach has been a regular supplier of the ambitious shoe manufacturer, located at Herzogenaurach.

In 1961 the production facilities at Rieschweiler need to be enlarged, and in 1969, thanks to the international success the administration office building was established.

adidas and Mohrbach

Also the sale of shoes has been rising from year to year and the manual packaging in shoe cartons was very time consuming. So in 1970 Adi Dassler asked Johannes Mohrbach :

„Your shoe machines are extremely reliable. But we also need to pack the shoes. Can you build a packaging machine for us?“

This was the birth of the idea to build a box erecting machine and the start of production of packaging machines at Mohrbach.

1957

Foundation of the Ernst Mohrbach KG Maschinenfabrik by Ernst Mohrbach and his son Johannes at Rieschweiler. Mohrbach has been emerged credit more and more at the German shoe manufacturers by innovative machines, special designs and fast technical service.

1970

Start of the production of packaging machinery which has been extended more and more. In 1972 already the first standard packaging machines were established and in 1976 the production halls needed to be enlarged.

1980

1980 Johannes Mohrbach took over the sole general management of his father Ernst Mohrbach, who retired. At the end of the 1980s more than 80 % of the machinery built by Mohrbach was packaging machinery, more and more also sold to international customers.

1988

Development and launch of a completely new series of standard box erecting machines. At the same time the lid closing machines were launches to the market.

1996

Start of the servomotor driven technology with the new series of box erecting machine and launch of the new standard program of lid closing machines.

2005

In 2005 Dr.-Ing. Lutz Demuß acquired the Mohrbach Maschinenfabrik GmbH in terms of succession plan for Johannes Mohrbach, being managing major partner. In 2006 the company was renamed in Mohrbach Verpackungsmaschinen GmbH. The new name showed the consequent focus on the packaging machines

2009

In 2009 Mohrbach Verpackungsmaschinen GmbH took a holing by the majority in Heripack Verpackungsmaschinen GmbH & Co. KG, located at Meschede. With this Mohrbach can offer now extensive system solutions for primary, secondary and tertiary carton packaging.

2019

In 2019 Mohrbach moved to the newly built headquarter at Hoehfroeschen. At 3,400 m² ideal production conditiones were created, nearby the previous location.

Today

The standardization of the product range has been realized more and more. In the meantime Mohrbach group can offer a broad range of standard machinery for carton packaging like box erectors, toploaders, lid closers and tray lidders as well as semi- and fully automatic packaging lines also for high speed applications.  Based on the know-how for decades, Mohrbach has been establishing being specialist in complex multipacking solutions for many years, like, e. g. case packer, box packer, tray packer, tray & hood packer, wrap around packer or individual packaging solutions.