Vossloh AG is a rail technology company based in Werdohl in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The SDAX-listed group has achieved sales of around €930 million in 2016 with more than 4,000 employees (as of 2017). Vossloh is a global market leader both for rail fasteners and switch systems. In North America, Vossloh is the leading manufacturer of concrete railway ties, and in relation to track maintenance, they offer a globally unique grinding technology, so-called high speed grinding. Customers are generally public and private railway companies, network operators as well as regional and municipal transport companies. Since the restructuring, Vossloh has been focusing on target markets China, the USA, Russia and Western Europe. Important European production sites of Vosslohs are located in Germany, France, Luxembourg, Poland and Scandinavia. In addition, the group has subsidiaries in Asia, North and South America, Australia and Russia. History The company is named after Eduard Vossloh. In 1883, the blacksmith received the first contract from the Royal Prussian Railway for the manufacture of spring washers for rail fasteners. On July 11, 1888 the Eduard Vossloh Company was registered. Spring washers and other hardware items were manufactured at the family's blacksmiths shop. Even today, Werdohl is still the headquarters of Vossloh AG and Vossloh Fastening Systems GmbH (Core Components division). Through the early 1900s the company continued to grow, producing general hardware including decorative items and lampholders for electric lights. In 1945 the facilities in Werdohl were destroyed by a bomb. Subsidiaries marketing lampholders which are located in Kaliningrad, Wroclaw and East Germany ceased to be part of the company due to the changes in political borders at that time. In 1946 production of holders for fluorescent tubes was allowed to take place at a plant in Lüdenscheid, by 1962 an additional plant for lighting products had opened in Selm and the Vossloh works employed 1,300 people, with 500 more employed in subsidiaries. 1967 was a decisive turning Point: Vossloh obtained a license to produce a new tension clamp rail fastening developed by Prof. Hermann Meier director of the Deutsche Bundesbahn. Recession in Germany in the 1980s resulted in the closure of two plants and employee lay-offs reducing the staff by almost half. Management was brought in from outside the Vossloh family, and Schwabe GmbH acquired; its lighting ballast products complementing Vossloh's lighting fittings product range, and on 1 December 1989 Vossloh-Werke GmbH became a