On Friday, September 24th, 2021, the GeKu workforce officially bid farewell to their founder and long-time managing director Thorsten Gerling. He officially gave up his duties for GeKu at the beginning of 2020 to switch to the newly founded HAHN Robotics Diepenau. Due to the events in the context of the corona pandemic, however, a proper official farewell for the entire team was only now possible.

At the company party in the Gasthaus Verbarg in Diepenau, Thomas Hähn was an honorary speaker, due to the fact that he had known Gerling for a long time as business partner and friend. In addition, Klaus Lesker, CEO of the RSBG, also appeared as a surprise guest.

The speeches by Ingo Heuer, successor to Thorsten Gerling and current managing director of GeKu, as well as Thomas Hähn and Klaus Lesker showed that the company and its founder have experienced a lot over the past 25 years. Gerling, Hähn and Heuer have in common that they have built a solid friendship over the years and learned a lot from each other.

As an official thank you, the GeKu staff presented a set of signed work clothes and a 3D model of the GeKu location. After founding it as a startup in a garage, Thorsten Gerling and his then partner Uwe Kruse made the company what it is today. GeKu has also been part of the HAHN Group since 2018 and, as a specialist, focuses on automation systems for the plastics and electronics industries.

In his new role at HAHN Robotics Diepenau, Gerling will continue to expand the new location and manage it strategically in cooperation with the HAHN Robotics Network. But it is already clear that the contact to GeKu will still be maintained due to the spatial proximity and the connections within the HAHN Group.