By Borries Schüler,
Management Board Product Management & Engineering
Hoffmann Group

Hoffmann Group was founded 100 years ago on March 11, 1919 by Josef Hoffmann. The company’s initial focus was on selling technical goods and products in Munich, Germany. Hofmann’s core competence was, and still is, tools for machining. As a dealer, Hoffmann offers a whole range of machining tools, including our own brand GARANT, along with those from other leading manufacturers.

At Hoffmann, we don’t only sell tools and tooling, we also give competent advice on how to use them as well. We have dedicated specialists for this, many of whom worked as machinists themselves and support our field sales teams with professional advice. Today, as a dealer, we have subsidiaries all over the world, and our GARANT machining tools are in use all around the globe.

The idea of in-depth technical advice goes back to the company founder’s son, Franz Hoffmann, who joined his father‘s business back in 1932. Franz was the one that invented the “Hoffmann catalogue” in 1936. From the 1950s, Franz Hoffmann consistently focused the company on selling quality tools and giving specialist advice. In 1973, he brought the GARANT brand to life, which is now the essential part of our machining portfolio.

Before we bring a new product onto the market, we have numerous meetings and discussions with our customers. As such, as we bring our own products onto the market, we have an in-depth understanding of what our customers truly need and can offer better equipment and advice because of this.

In 1983 we started our own milling range. Since then, our GARANT machining tools have become more unique, and better performing. Initially our focus with GARANT was to open volume advantages for our customers, as is often the case with owned brands. However, instead we decided to build a specialty brand, with a focus on developing our own specifications for GARANT tools. These tools are only available directly from Hoffmann Group.

A great example of this is our GARANT Master family for high-performance cutting. We first presented the HPC milling tools in 2015, and since then, we have been continuously developing the GARANT Master range. And with our HPC drills Master Steel FEED and SPEED, we have opened up a new performance class in machining.

As for our future. I am sure that by using new carbide substrates, coatings and geometries we can develop tools that are even more powerful and durable. New technologies and machine tools will also play an increasingly important role in our future. And it will also be important for us to obtain more precise data from the production infrastructure about the wear and tear, and condition, of our tools. Based on this information, it will be possible to calculate the complete tool life cycle more accurately, and thus optimise the use of our tools. This, in turn, will make it possible to continuously improve our entire machining and production process as well.