1968-1977

The year is 1968, an employed sales representative for injection moulding machines lives with his wife in his parents-in-law's house in Bielefeld-Milse. In the same building there is a hall from which the rhythmic clacking can be heard at night when a finished injection moulded part falls onto a metal sheet. The man who listens to this clacking in Milse becomes our future founder. However, this future name is misleading at this point, as we, CONTA-CLIP, do not even exist at this time. Originally, this hall was a sewing workshop run by his father-in-law Hermann Ellermann with employed seamstresses. In the course of structural change in the textile industry, contract sewing came to a standstill until the sewing machines finally fell silent altogether.

In this phase, the son-in-law suggests: "Why don't we install injection moulding machines instead of the sewing machines?" He recognises the opportunity to generate income on the side by injection moulding for the industry. Out of caution, he remains employed, especially as he has just got married and is planning a family. At the same time, he takes care of his father-in-law's orders on a part-time basis, quickly familiarising himself with the Hermann Ellermann KG, which was founded under his name in 1968. This period of ten years made it possible to accumulate considerable savings as start-up capital until we finally emerged as CONTA-CLIP in the 1970s. This, as already indicated, will be our launch pad leading us to the point where we enter the stage.

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