Big Anniversary Celebrates 100 years in precision Monitoring Technologies

This year marks a century of Anton Paar and during June guests from all over the world came together to celebrate the success of this monitoring technologies specialist.

Founded in 1922 by Anton Paar, the company began as a small, modest and traditional machine shop based in Heinrichstraße, Graz, with a few hand-operated machines. Over the course of its 100-year history, the company has developed from this one-man machine shop into a measurement technology group with over 3,700 employees worldwide. Today, the company is a global market leader in the fields of density and concentration measurement, rheometry and CO₂ measurement.

The company has written history characterised by curiosity, inventiveness and initiative - starting with Anton Paar himself, his daughter Gretl Platzer, the first female master machinist in Styria, her son-in-law Ulrich Santner, who combined the traditional company with innovative research, and his son-in-law Friedrich Santner, who turned Anton Paar into the internationally successful company it is today.

Highlighting this unique story, the company invited the entire workforce worldwide, as well as representatives from politics, business partners and friends of the family, to join the week-long occasion at Stadthalle Graz. Around 2,700 employees from Asia, America, Australia, Africa and Europe attended the event in Austria, many visiting Styria for the first time. "I would like to thank everyone for coming. I am particularly pleased that so many employees from all over the world came to celebrate with us. That makes me proud and grateful," said CEO Dr. Friedrich Santner.

During the week a diverse, colourful supporting program was arranged, from hands-on workshops and product trainings to sight-seeing tours and food-trucks. Employees from a wide variety of countries provided an entertaining evening with their performances and people danced to Egon7 until late into the night. "The picture at Stadthalle was a very special one – exuberant celebrations, a joyful togetherness of different people and cultures. This diversity is beautiful and also, to a certain extent, what our company is all about," described main organiser Maria Santner.

The big celebration in the Graz Stadthalle was the highlight of the anniversary year, but much more is on offer, such as the exhibition ‘exakt! The world of Anton Paar‘ at Graz Museum.

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