60 Years of Busch Vacuum Solutions
60 years ago, Busch Vacuum Solutions was founded by Ayhan and Dr Karl Busch. Today, 8,000 people work for the family-owned company in 110 subsidiaries worldwide. The company has been world market leader in the vacuum packaging market segment for decades.
Ayhan and Dr Karl Busch met in Munich, where she studied medicine and he mechanical engineering. In 1960, Dr Karl Busch received his doctorate on the subject of “Friction and wear in water-lubricated rotary compressors.” He then went on to work as a design manager in the machine factory owned by his grandfather, Karl Wittig, in Schopfheim in the Black Forest in Germany. In 1963, he and his wife founded “Dr.-Ing. Karl Busch GmbH” there. The company relocated to Maulburg, the neighboring village, in 1972, where it remains today.
When self-service supermarkets appeared in Germany in the early 1960s, Dr Karl Busch developed the first vacuum pump specifically for packaging food: the HUCKEPACK, a particularly compact and robust vacuum pump with pump stages arranged one above the other. This stacked design explains its name, which is the German word for piggyback.
It was thanks to Ayhan Busch’s entrepreneurial foresight that the young company grew so quickly. She recognized early on the importance of international expansion. In 1971, Busch founded its first foreign branch in the United Kingdom. In just 15 years, another 18 subsidiaries and four production facilities followed all over the world. The Busch couple never relied on banks while building up their company. Instead, they used the capital they had generated themselves. In 1981, Busch was the first German industrial company to sign a cooperation agreement for production in China. With HUCKEPACK’s successor, the R5, an oil-lubricated rotary vane vacuum pump, the company set a new industry standard and became a world market leader in the vacuum packaging sector.
Today, Busch offers vacuum solutions for a wide range of applications for various industries. The company is represented by 110 subsidiaries all over the world, including production facilities in China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Korea, Romania, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the USA and Vietnam. The international Busch Group also includes Pfeiffer Vacuum AG, a vacuum pump manufacturer based in northern Hesse, Germany.
Busch Vacuum Solutions is jointly managed by Ayhan and Dr Karl Busch, as well as their three children Ayla, Sami, and Kaya Busch. The Busch family still makes all major decisions together. This principle, which Ayhan Busch established, remains the recipe for success on which the company is based today. In 2022, the Busch family received the most prestigious honor for family businesses in Germany, the award “Family Entrepreneur of the Year”, in recognition of its diversity between generations, genders and cultures.
Additionally, Ayhan Busch and Dr Karl Busch were jointly named as citizens of honor by the municipality of Maulburg in 2015. In 2019, the Technical University of Munich named Dr Karl Busch an honorary senator. In the same year, he and his wife received the Business Medal from the state of Baden-Württemberg for their outstanding entrepreneurial achievements, and in 2022, they were presented the Gold Medal of Honor from the district of Lörrach for their social and cultural commitment.
Maulburg, September 12, 2023
Busch Vacuum Solutions
Christine Rohr
From left to right: Ayla, Dr Karl, Sami, Ayhan and Kaya Busch. Source: Leon Kopplow.
The young couple. Source: Busch Vacuum Solutions.
“HUCKEPACK” is the German word for piggyback. The stages of the vacuum pump are arranged one above the other. Source: Busch Vacuum Solutions.
With the R5, an oil-lubricated rotary vane vacuum pump, the company set a new industry standard and became world market leader in the vacuum packaging sector. Source: Busch Vacuum Solutions.
The headquarters in Maulburg in 1980. Source: Busch Vacuum Solutions.
