Our company was founded in 1948 by Herbert Kannegiesser, an engineer by training, who until the end of the war had been working in the aviation industry. With four co-workers he started manufacturing ironers for the garment industry in a wooden shed near Vlotho in East Westphalia, Germany. Soon shirt ironing presses became the specialty of the young business and served as the foundation for its international reputation.

Wherever in the world shirts were ironed manually – from Hong Kong to Brazil and Russia to South Africa – they were now almost exclusively finished on Kannegiesser machines over the next few decades. Irma Kannegiesser, the wife of Herbert Kannegiesser, established the foundation for a worldwide distribution network.

Starting in 1950, specially designed shirt ironers made their way into laundries and were confronted by already established brands such as Braun, Ajax and Prosperity. The integration into the garment industry on one side and the standard laundry application on the other side furthered the development of the company.