Our family

There are more than three million family businesses in Germany. In 2017, LAPP turnover amounted to more than one billion euros. This makes it one of the 250 most successful companies in the country [HK | S1], according to the ranking of DDW business portal “Best Family Businesses in Germany” in 2018.

This success story begins with a man named Oskar Lapp. Considering the labor-intensive manual insertion of single strands into outer shells, he asked himself a simple question: “How can I do this better?” and answered this question with an innovative development. In 1957 he developed the first industrial color-coded flexible and oil-resistant control cable.

His wife Ursula Ida Lapp strongly believed in her husband's invention, which later became known under the brand name ÖLFLEX®. In 1959, she registered the company U.I. Lapp KG at the Stuttgart District Court. The couple came up with this name together. They wanted to emphasize that this is their family business. They took out a loan of 50,000 marks to finance their new enterprise. This investment quickly paid off. LAPP saw huge demand for its pre-assembled cables and the company grew rapidly.

Oskar and Ursula Ida Lapp became an example, including for their sons Andreas and Siegbert, with their ambition, vision, courage and devotion. After Oskar Lapp died of a heart attack in 1987, they and their mother continued to lead the company, as their father would have wished.

Since 2017, the third generation of the Lapp family has assumed responsibility for the company and its employees. Matthias Lapp and Alexander Lapp, grandchildren of Ursula Ida Lapp, joined the family business. The company’s founder, Ursula Ida Lapp, who was born in 1930, passed away in April 2021. The pre-planned strategic addition of the third generation to the company management ensured the growth and, therefore, the future of the family business operating throughout the world.

In 2022, the family takes the next big step: the second generation, Andreas Lapp and Siegbert Lapp, retires from the operational business of the LAPP Group and places management responsibility completely in the hands of the third generation. Matthias Lapp, as the eldest grandson of the company founders, now holds the position of the Chairman of the Board of LAPP Holding AG. Andreas Lapp’s daughter Katharina Lapp was appointed to the Supervisory Board. This means that in the future, one family member will continue to be in the Executive Board and one in the Supervisory Board: LAPP remains a family business.