In 1870 the brothers Karl and Georg Hofmann took over the family- operated blacksmith’s shop from their father and grandfather (established around 1660 a.d.) and converted it into a thresh-shop with integrated maintenance & repair for their own and other agricultural machines. Meanwhile grown, the company moved in 1880 outside of the city wall to the Gebr.-Hofmann-Ring, where it still exists. First, the activities were added by trading agricultural machines and later an own production for those machines was established. Since 1925 the brand names Bavaria and GHE Bavaria are used.

Like every company has to move on with the changes of time and has to adapt itself and its products, cranes and excavators were produced during the construction boom phase from the 1950ies to the early 1980ies, for some time even as OEM products for DEMAG. As of the early 1970ies compactors / briquetting presses and solid wood bending machines were added to the product range. The compactor came with the termination of a friend’s company and looked interesting because of the oil crisis of those times. The solid wood bending machines was taken over from Holma, a company located in the nearby village of Wiesentheid.

In the early 1980ies our company experienced a quite fundamental restructuration that finally lead to the end of our own production after almost 60 years. The range of cranes and excavators were terminated, the range of agricultural machines was reduced but still offered until the year 2000. Since the newly designed compactor was well acclaimed by its customers because of its rugged design and its reliable function, it was one of pillars of the company back then. It is still part of our product range though it has been refined in basically all details since then. Today, these presses are used 24/364 by industrial customers to compact production waste.

In the meantime however, plants and machines for solid wood bending are the most important products of our company. The entire range is continuously re-designed and consequently adapted to the needs of an industrial series production (production volume, simplifying operation, speeding up processes, accuracy of parts). In 1995, China was added to the shipping-list, and today they can be found in more than 30 countries on all continents of the world.

Some years ago our plants for renewable energy were added to our product range. Since then, solar process heat plants as well as tracker systems for photovoltaics and concentrated photovoltaics are offered. Single axis trackers are quite big (up to 100 kWp), while double axis trackers are designed for accuracy and even operate with CPV modules without sun position sensors.

Today, the company is managed in the fourth generation by Dr.-Ing. Otto Eggert, the great grandson of the founder Karl Hofmann.