From elevator fitter to respected entrepreneur

Without these quali­ties, Alfred Thoma would probably not have followed such an unusual and impres­sive career path. It led the “boy from Bava­rian Swabia”, who had herded cows bare­foot in his child­hood, via an appren­ti­ce­ship as an elec­tri­cian and elevator fitter, finally to a successful and respected elevator manu­fac­turer, who held his own against the big players in the industry time and again with tenacity and an inge­nious under­stan­ding of technology.

In 1953, Thoma completed his appren­ti­ce­ship at the Kamm­garn­spin­nerei in Augs­burg. As an elec­tri­cian, he main­tained elevator systems there and began to become enthu­si­a­stic about this tech­no­logy. He

decides to join Bauer Aufzüge — another Augs­burg company — and learns how to manu­fac­ture and install complete elevator systems from scratch.

Because of his good work, Thoma is sent to Frank­furt with the assign­ment of setting up a branch office there for the company. He has only his toolbox in his luggage when he arrives in the city. Bauer, he hands over a branch office with 30 employees in 1967.

With will­power and inventiveness 

After some minor fric­tion, Alfred Thoma parts ways with the company and decides to go into busi­ness for himself. Initi­ally, he mainly manu­fac­tures control compon­ents and signs a coope­ra­tion agree­ment with another southern German elevator manu­fac­turer. Thoma sells the latter’s systems in the Rhine-Main region and installs and main­tains the eleva­tors. From the very begin­ning, however, they are equipped with his own products — control systems from his company Thoma Aufzüge.

The firm belief in doing things better, achie­ving goals with will­power and inven­ti­ve­ness, and the urge to “show others how it’s done” have always been important driving forces for Alfred Thoma. As early as 1969, in the company’s second year, he and a handful of men assem­bled a system with 14 stops at Bad Homburg’s Untertor. In the same year, the industry newcomer completes 14 instal­la­tions. At that time, Thoma Aufzüge was still basi­cally a three-man opera­tion, supple­mented by a few assistants, in which Thomas’ older sons also worked a few years later.

His first employees were a sworn troop. For anyone who wanted to work for Thoma, the willing­ness to work hard for good money was the ticket. “I went three times to apply,” says Horst Zschen­der­lein, who ulti­m­ately worked for Thoma for more than 50 years and is considered one of the “veterans” in the company. “At the first inter­view, they said I was too weak.” But in the end, “the old man” reco­gnized his will to work, “and will was all that mattered.”

Moti­vator, driver — and fair employer

In the first few years, the boss himself lent a hand, accom­pa­nied all trans­ports and also helped with unloa­ding and assembly. Even inju­ries did not stop him from working, reports Zschenderlein.

Thoma was always a moti­vator and driver and always set a good example. If someone in his team objected, he coun­tered in his own way. His motto: “If you don’t want to do it, I’ll do it myself.” Alfred Thoma was incor­rup­tible in every respect. Some­times the boss pushed his people until he himself was exhausted. Over­time was normal, espe­ci­ally when a dead­line for the comple­tion of a plant was approaching.

At the same time, he was always gene­rous and fair when he was satis­fied with the perfor­mance of his team, some­times in an uncon­ven­tional way. He let employees use a company car for family vaca­tions, handed out cash bonuses after a decent perfor­mance, bought rounds of pizza and beer, or spon­ta­neously increased the hourly wage by a few pennies when someone fetched a cold beer for him. Because when it came to his favo­rite drink, he was and remained a Bava­rian: Thoma, who had chosen to live in Frank­furt, also enjoyed a wheat beer at lunchtime.

Thomas tech­nical skills convince

But it was not only the fair­ness and physical presence of the hands-on tinkerer that secured him the loyalty of his work­force. Thoma also won over the work­force with his tech­nical skills. “He was dynamic and deter­mined,” one former employee describes him. “And we always had the feeling that what he put his hand to, he could do.”

At that time, the loyalty of the employees went so far that one of them once priva­tely lent the entre­pre­neur a large sum of money when the house banks did not want to grant an important loan despite a good order situa­tion. Sure, those were diffe­rent times, but the example shows the team spirit that shaped Thoma’s corpo­rate culture and still does today.

With its tech­nical deve­lo­p­ments — espe­ci­ally the inno­va­tive control systems — Alfred Thoma surprised its custo­mers and compe­ti­tors time and again. They enabled fast but at the same time very comfor­table elevator rides. In 1978, he presented his inno­va­tive controls at the Hanover Fair and subse­quently sold them in large quan­ti­ties. Thoma expanded his company in Frank­furt during this period and from 1980 onwards manu­fac­tured more than 80 elevator systems per year.

An inge­nious tinkerer who is trusted by customers

Thoma deve­lops micro­pro­cessor controls, machine room-less eleva­tors, new designs for heavy-duty eleva­tors and uses gearless drives for high travel speeds at an early stage. The fact that Thoma Aufzüge has estab­lished itself over many years as a specia­list for parti­cu­larly deman­ding instal­la­tions is prima­rily due to the inven­tive spirit of the company’s founder Alfred Thoma, his passion for maste­ring tech­nical chal­lenges and sear­ching for optimal solutions.

Of parti­cular importance in 1986 was the supply and instal­la­tion of twelve elevator systems in the “Poseidon-Haus”, a high-rise office buil­ding on Theodor-Heuss-Allee oppo­site the trade fair in Frank­furt. There, Alfred Thoma realized, among other things, a group of six eleva­tors with 19 landings and a travel speed of 2.0 m/s, which were in opera­tion for more than 25 years by means of relay control.

Without knowing it in advance, Thoma once again performed pionee­ring work.

Up to that time, there was no company in Germany that could centrally control a group of six elevators.

control of a group of six elevators.

The resourceful elevator manu­fac­turer only really realized what he had achieved when the eleva­tors were accepted and handed over. The respon­sible employees of the client, Hoch­tief, expressly thanked and praised Thoma, saying: “We knew you could do it!”

Honesty, commit­ment and transparency 

This trust of regular custo­mers, espe­ci­ally Hoch­tief and Philipp Holz­mann AG, led to Hoch­tief orde­ring 30 high-perfor­mance systems for a high-rise buil­ding from Thoma in the early 1990s. The order was admit­tedly too large for his company’s capa­ci­ties. But the expe­ri­enced busi­nessman quickly joined forces with a compe­titor who was keen to “get on board”, and the two compa­nies handled the order together.

For a long time now, Thoma Aufzüge has had its own depart­ment working on tech­nical development.

Alfred Thoma’s youn­gest son Jan, who now runs the company, adheres to his father’s system of values and prin­ci­ples, and thus successfully holds his own in an incre­asingly tough compe­ti­tive envi­ron­ment in which the only thing that often matters is cutting costs. 

An honest, binding and trans­pa­rent rela­ti­onship with custo­mers, reliability,

quality and a spirit of inno­va­tion are the legacy of Alfred Thomas, which will continue to guide Thoma Aufzüge in the future.