100 years of Oskar Lapp – pioneer for the future
He was a brilliant inventor and a passionate businessman – Oskar Lapp (1921-1987), founder of the LAPP Group, would have been 100 years old on 20th March 2021. Together with his wife Ursula Ida Lapp, he founded a world-renowned company and is still making an impact on connection technology worldwide to this day.
Oskar Lapp developed the first rectangular connector for industry and the world’s first industrially manufactured and flexible power and control cable under the name ÖLFLEX®. The company was founded in 1959 on the basis of this innovation. Oskar Lapp was the first entrepreneur to give an industrial product a brand name. Today, the ÖLFLEX® brand stands worldwide for particularly oil-resistant and flexible control cables. Later, the LAPP brands UNITRONIC®, HITRONIC®, SKINTOP®, SILVYN®, EPIC®, ETHERLINE® and FLEXIMARK® were added.
Over a million customers trust the LAPP brands today. We owe Oskar Lapp a big debt of gratitude for this formula for success. He had recognised early on that the quality and reliability of brands, the focus on innovation and the principle of “everything from a single source” would convince and inspire customers in the long term.
Today, as a leading supplier of connection solutions, LAPP employs 4,575 people worldwide.
Without Oskar Lapp, we wouldn’t exist today. We continue his life’s work with our deepest gratitude.