Back in the 1920s, at his parents’ construction business and adjoining building materials shop, A.W. Bobe was discovering the importance of punctual transport services.

 

Around 1925: A.W. Bobe’s first employee, Willy Sundermann, at the time still working for the parents’ company, transporting bags of cement which all had to be loaded and unloaded by hand.

 

 

By 1936, things had moved on: the fleet grew and the name BOBE-SYLBACH soon became known throughout Germany. A few years later: a BOBE lorry at the Frankfurter Kreuz, hard at work carrying German-made products.

 

 

Berlin, Munich and the cities of Saxony were the destinations for BOBE lorries until the chaos of war put a stop to development. The drivers were called up, in some cases with their vehicles. BOBE quickly got going again after the War and the order book was well filled. The company grew rapidly by buying up similar firms in Hamburg, Dortmund and Nuremberg. Encouraged by the favourable business trend, A.W. Bobe was receptive to all the technical innovations that came along in the years that followed. Cement was needed everywhere and the first ready-mixed concrete plants had a big demand for silo cement. Once again the company saw a great opportunity and purchased the requisite silo cement carrier, a risky venture at the time. Our picture shows BOBE’s first uniform cement silo fleet in 1961, taking to the roads with BUESSING tractors and SPITZER carriers.

 

 

1982: The old BOBE company site at Bad Salzuflen-Sylbach.

 

 

27 June 1983: August Wilhelm Bobe, the company’s founder, died at the age of 81. He was succeeded by Herbert Overbeck.

 

 

4 May 1986: To mark the 50th anniversary of the business, Herbert Overbeck receives the ICC certificate on behalf of all the employees from Vice-president C.H. Reiche and Chief Executive Niederstein at the anniversary event at "Im Löwen", Sylbach.

 

 

1986: Company site at Sylbach refurbished – fleet renewed and enlarged – result: a shortage of space everywhere!

 

 

10 July 1987: New company site in Bad Salzuflen-Holzhausen: topping out ceremony

 

 

New Year 1988: Completion of Phase I of construction.

 

 

1994: The BOBE fleet has grown a lot since then! More than 120 rigs have to be washed every week, a big cost factor. Customers are entitled to expect clean trucks. An on site washing plant was therefore built, to cut long waiting times and costs at external washing plants and provide the required flexibility. Equipped with the very latest wastewater treatment facilities, naturally.

 

 

1997: New investment again in technical innovations indicating further growth for BOBE for the benefit of the German economy.

 

 

2000: Just as BOBE – incidentally a 100% family-owned business – is fully committed to technical progress, so the generation problem of the succession has been solved, at the right time and very successfully. The ‘young guard’ of the family have been involved in running the company for some years now and are thus well prepared to take the business confidently into the new millennium, despite all the current economic turmoil.

 

 

2005: Minden branch opened. Container traffic expected to double by 2015. This positive growth prompts BOBE to take measures at the right time. Another site is opened in Minden in May 2005. This base will make use of the good connections with the Weser and Mittellandkanal waterway systems to shift some of the freight from our already overcrowded motorways on to water routes. Cooperation agreements are quickly put in place with inland waterway and rail carriers to guarantee regular transport with weekly departures from and to German harbours. In the first year alone, more than 15,000 additional containers were carried via this trimodal transport route. By 2007 that figure had risen to 30,000 containers.

 

 

2006 : In January 2006 the new Logistics Centre with a total floor area of 6000 m2 was completed. For BOBE, this was a significant milestone on the way to contract logistics.