“Little” surprise for big visions

TRUCKLIFE

90th birthday and a one of a kind for Greiwing

It all began 90 years ago with a truck that the company’s founder Alfons Greiwing used to transport coal and cement. Today, Greiwing remains a family company but has a fleet of hundreds of trucks and semitrailers. Over 800 people work for the internationally operating haulage company at twelve sites, and annual turnover is more than 100 million euros. 

90 years – it’s not really a landmark anniversary but still a good reason to celebrate. At the beginning of the year, all employees from the Greven site were invited into the main workshop for a glass of bubbly, finger food and “a little surprise” for the team, as Jürgen Greiwing puts it. It wasn’t actually that little. A covered semitrailer drove into the building. 

When Erich Greiwing and his sons, Jürgen and Roland, removed the screening, applause greeted a genuine one of a kind: a silo semitrailer with a historic design on the side, showing Erich Greiwing as a young man next to a 180 horsepower Büssing 8000 – the vehicle that was originally used to deliver cement. The year the company was founded – 1930- is immortalised on the vehicle number plate. And on the rear, the granddad – founder Alfons Greiwing – is advertising for the next generation in logistics.

 “It doesn’t get any better”, said a beaming Erich Greiwing, who spontaneously put himself forward for the first trip in the new vehicle. “The truck will be used for national and international long-haul transport”, promised Jürgen Greiwing, who like Roland Greiwing is now a director of the company. 

Greiwing owes its survival for 90 years in a hard-fought market in large part to its employees. “It’s really enjoyable working with our team”, said Jürgen Greiwing. They have also benefited from a wide range of services. For a long time, Greiwing has done more than just transportation, offering customers a complete logistics package, including filling and mixing of goods. 

Talking of goods, Greiwing has specialised in granulated, powdered and fine particulate commodities, components and products from a variety of sectors – from baking ingredients to building materials. Administration and management are based in Greven. This is also where the truck workshop is located and where new vehicles are fitted out, before a maximum of three years of use. As in other industries, the biggest issue is a lack of specialist staff. “It’s a huge challenge”, says Jürgen Greiwing.