Development of the PUMA cleaning machine – Repositioning the company as a developer of innovative environmental and recycling machinery

“I have an idea!” Werner Doppstadt’s creativity ends up being the recipe for the newly established company’s success

1970 represents the actual year in which Doppstadt became an environmental technology company: As a service contractor, Werner Doppstadt was mowing the lawn at Gelsenwasser AG, when he noticed how difficult it was for the employees of the municipal water works to clean the filter basins of the water treatment facility. “There must be a better way!” he said to himself before speaking to the people there and coming up with the idea of the “PUMA” cleaning machine in line with his own personal mantra “I have an idea!” It automated the strenuous manual task at hand: The PUMA drove over the material to be cleaned, collecting the contaminated filter sand and completely sorting out the contaminated particles. The management of Gelsenwasser AG was excited and ordered the machine: That served as the impetus for Doppstadt to transform from an agricultural service enterprise into the innovative supplier of environmental technology processes. On top of that: The brothers did not only develop machinery; they built machinery too. In the absence of any type of production building, the first machine was constructed and built in the barn on the old farm – and due to the fact that they were so passionately preoccupied with the project, they did not notice that the machine could not get through the doorway. No problem: They just widened the doorway in the brick wall, and the finished machine was delivered to the customer. It is always necessary to set your priorities.