1. MARCH MANUFACTURING, Glenview, IL, USA

March Manufacturing, Inc. was founded in 1954 as a job shop preforming precision machining for the aircraft industry. It was in 1955 that the company developed its first product, a pump for removing cooling coil condensation from air conditioners and other refrigeration systems. March originated the concept of pumping refrigeration condensate instead of the conventional gravity flow to the nearest drain or sewer. Initially, this new method met with strong resistance from manufacturers and installing contractors. This resistance was gradually overcome over a ten year period through the persistant efforts of Barny Kenopka, Today, March's original idea is an accepted method and the company manufactured one of the broadest and highest quality line of condensate pumps available to industry for many years.

In 1958 the family of type X pumps were developed. These were shaft seal pumps used in fruit juice dispensers. The type X then developed into the MDX magnetic coupled pump in 1962. Small shaft seals are not reliable and will always leak. Hence the seal-less magnetic coupled pump was developed to eliminate leakage and to reduce the power requirements of the motors.

The epoxy encapsulated submersible pump were added to the pump line in 1960. This product group was originally developed for display fountain recirculation, but has grown to include numerous OEM equipment applications. During the early stages of March's History, pumps were merely a sideline. It was not until the early seventies that the company discovered the full sales potential of its emerging pump products and phased out the machine shop jobbing aspect of its business in 1973 and concentrated its full resources on the pump line.

However, March has drawn heavily on its precision machining capability and high quality control standard to develop products which are more reliable than lower cost competitive brands. March’s former President Fred Zimmermann felt strongly that the company must continue to work within the quality segment of every market. Unlike Fairbanks Morse, Worthington and other giants of the pump business, March has specialized in the fractional horsepower units which are most susceptible to leakage and power loss problems of pump seal friction. March's answer to these traditional shaft seal pump problems was the magnetically-coupled drive which the company originated and perfected for beverage dispensers. Although the beverage dispenser market eventually reached extinction, March has discovered many new OEM applications for seal-less fractional horsepower pumps. The long association with the Eastman Kodak company and its photo processing.equipment is a noteworthy landmark in March OEM market development and product position.

Product development at March can best be described as resulting from application engineering rather than pure R & D. Most product innovations are motivated by specific pump application problems for which March engineers find a solution. Important product innovations and new pump markets which resulted from field problem solving include the condensate pump, submersible pumps, and beverage and photo processing pumps which resulted in the magnetically coupled family of pumps.

From its present 120,000 square foot facility in Glenview, March does all that is possible to control manufacturing quality and delivery, Production consists of not just assembly, but all types of machining, finishing and a sophisticated injection molding operation which produces 90% of all necessary molded pump parts. The injection molding facility has enabled the company to closely control product quality and be more flexible in meeting customer specifications and delivery schedules. March also makes its own shaded pole motors to assure quality and reliability for its condensate pumps, epoxy submersible pumps, and some open air industrial pumps. The March motor division is now also making motors for other OEM accounts.

Quality control for components and unfinished goods is excellent and a result of the company's past experience in manufacturing to aviation standards. Much of the specialized testing equipment and expertise that was needed to assure precision in the job shop business is being utilized to monitor the quality of today's pump products. March has also used its precision machining capability to build product testing equipment and automated assembly systems.

March management unanimously agrees that the company is oriented toward engineering and product development - a result of being a problem solving organization.

2. 40 Years History of MARCH PUMPEN in Germany

History of Mr. Neil Steadman:

It was Mr. Neil Steadman who found the company. He describes his working history as follows:

Wainco Products Ltd was a small company designing and making Photo Processing machines for developing film and processing photo paper.

This was a very successful company created by Eric Wain who had been running a photo shop in Loughborough in Leicestershire. The machines were very successful and found favour with no-less that Eastman Kodak. This led to exhibitions In Europe and even America. lt was at such an exhibition in Chicago that we were approached by Fred Zimmerman from March Manufacturing, who asked why we were not using March pumps on our machines. We informed him that March Pumps were not available in the UK, and after some discussion then, and later, back in the UK, we changed our supplier of pumps to the March range.

This eventually led to the creation of the company March May Ltd, the name came from the idea that as March Manufacturing was formed in the month of March, the new company was formed in the month of May.

At the time of this founding of the new company I was Managing Director of Wainco and also took on the role of MD of the new company.

Later as the March May company developed I gave up my position in Wainco in order to concentrate full time on the Pump business which was growing quickly, not only in the UK, but also in Europe.

By this time we were supplying Westamatic with March condensate pumps and a very close association grew between the two companies, leading to the idea that we should form a company in Germany to handle all the continental sales.

History of the foundation of MARCH PUMPEN GmbH up to date:

With the help of the Westamatic owners, Herr and Frau Elser, March Pumpen was formed and Neil Steadman handed over the running of the UK company to the then sales director lan Hornsby.

Mrs. Jean Steadman and Mr. Steadman then moved to Germany on the 25th of January 1982 to an apartment in Kronberg and to offices in the same building as Westamatic, in Frankfurt/M., and Westamatic also provided storage space for our stock.

The company was first named as MARCH PUMPEN Vetriebs-GmbH.

After some time, as the business grew and more space was needed, March Pumpen moved to premises in Frankfurt- Sindlingen to the west of Frankfurt, where the business continued to grow and develop with the help of new staff. lt was not long before the premises in Sindlingen were too small. This led to the next move to Hofheim in the Taunus.

Mr. and Mrs. Steadman had by this time lived in Germany for some 14 years and so he decided that it was time for us to return to the UK. Efforts were made to find a buyer for the company and this was eventually achieved.

For the time being Thomas Wollmann became the managing Director whilst 51% of the shares were sold to a company named LogEtronics GmbH. This company was located in Kronberg and were a manufacturer and dealer of photographic equipment at that time. 30% of the company shares were still held by MARCH Mfg, 12% of the shares were bought by Thomas Wollmann and 7% of the shares were still owned by Neil Steadman. It was in 1996 when Peter Henninger, the managing director and solely shareholder of LogEtronics GmbH, became the 2nd Managing Director of MARCH PUMPEN.

The company name was changed to MARCH PUMPEN GmbH, since more and more pumps and parts was manufactured in-house and moved to a new location from Hofheim to Kronberg/Ts. It was in the 2002 as Mr. Henninger passed away.

After 2 years of hard disputes with the heirs of Logetronics, Thomas Wollmann finally took over the majority shares in the company. He moved the company to new facilities in Rosbach.

By 2006, Thomas Wollmann also bought the remaining shares from the remaining shareholders MARCH Mfg. and Steadman.

Because the capacities in Rosbach became too small, the company finally moved to its current location in Giessen.

Under the management of Thomas Wollmann, the company's own production has been further expanded to this day and various patents for magnetically driven gear and rotary vane pumps made of completely metal-free materials have been developed.

Up to date MARCH PUMPEN GmbH offers one of the world’s most extensive pump ranges of leak-free magnetically coupled pumps in the market.