KOSTAL – A family company with its own tradition

Images: a) founder Leopold Kostal b) Kurt Kostal with his son Helmut and father Leopold.

The KOSTAL Group is an independent, family company with its headquarters Germany founded 1912 in Lüdenscheid. Founded as a manufacturer of installation materials for industrial and domestic applications, in 1927 the company entered the field of automotive Electrical by a self-developed direction indicator switch for automobiles.

A few years later, in 1935, Kurt Kostal entered the company as the second generation of the family and, under the management of these two generations, working together, Leopold Kostal focussed its attention squarely on the design, development and manufacture of products for the automobile industry.

In 1938, the first connectors have been supplied for automotive applications.

Leopold Kostal, the founder of the company, died in 1961 at the age of 77. Just over 10 years later, in 1972, his grandson, Dipl.-Kfm. Helmut Kostal joined the firm as the 3rd generation of the family. When Kurt Kostal died in 1981, his son Helmut carried on the company making it more and more international in its activities, to meet demand. In 1990-eis, he formed the company into further business divisions under the umbrella of Leopold Kostal GmbH & Co. KG, which in 2004 have been transformed into legally independent companies including KOSTAL Kontakt Systeme GmbH.

The current customer base includes many famous companies, including all the world's vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers.