Saying goodbye after 53 years 
31.03.2010

On March 26, colleagues gathered for a festive farewell to Reinhard Lüker, divisional manager and authorized signatory for the company, who has retired after 53 years – to the day – with Kolbus. They were celebrating the end of a remarkable career.
On April 1, 1957, Reinhard Lüker was just 14 when he began a fitting and turning apprenticeship at Kolbus. His training completed, he worked in Final Assembly from October 1960; it was already apparent that he would go far. In 1962, he began travelling the world as a customer service technician. In September 1967, he transferred to the back-office, becoming an assistant in the Customer Service Technical Office. After only a year there, he joined our sales team. Once again his job took him travelling – to the USA, South America, UK, Holland, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. 1970 he was given full power of attorney for the company. During the early 1980s, he spearheaded sales in what was then West Germany, building up a state-of-the-art, and highly successful, direct sales system for Germany. In August 1999, Reinhard Lüker became authorized joint signatory for the company and in June 2000 he was made divisional manager for Direct Sales. His career had taken him from the training workshop to company management and it had paralleled the rapid growth of “his” Kolbus.
Reinhard Lüker reached retirement age in February 2008, but he wasn’t ready to retire. He was still aiming to break another sales record. He worked literally until the last minute, leading and encouraging his team. Only a few days ago, he signed his last contract for a book production line.