Experiencing water, delighting in its flow every single day, giving it a special form – that is what Grohe aspires to achieve. Ever since the firm Berkenhoff & Paschedag was taken over by Friedrich Grohe in 1936, the company has been devoted to finding a fitting way to handle water. The Friedrich Grohe Armaturenfabrik, which was renamed after its owner in 1948, is one of Europe’s biggest brand for bathroom fittings.
In 1984, two years after the death of the company’s founder, his heirs bought back the 51% share that had been sold to U.S. corporation International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT) in 1968. Following their stock market flotation, the Grohe shares were acquired by an investor consortium consisting of Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Credit Suisse (CS). With an innovation rate of 25 percent every two years, Grohe today numbers amongst the most innovative companies in the sector.
When it comes to design, however, Grohe strives for lastingness and seeks to achieve the ideal balance between aesthetics and functionality. The needs of the bathroom user are always uppermost. And so that it can answer the question “What do people need?”, much of the development of new products at the Grohe Design Centre, founded in 1997, is dedicated to trend research. Grohe aims to enter into a dialogue with users and make its products as accessible as possible. In order to ensure its designs are self-explanatory and maintain a consistently high standard of quality, the new products are put through their paces in independent laboratories prior to launch.
