Tradition since 1952

- ENTRE­PRE­NEU­RIAL SPIRIT INCLUDED: WOUNDWO can look back with pride on an exciting history. In 1952 Walther Grün set up the whole­sale company ‘Plas­tica’ in Graz, and started supp­lying plastic products for the retail sector. The company’s range mainly included house­wares such as plastic tubs, eggcups and drin­king cups and glasses, but it also featured protec­tive covers for writing imple­ments. Walther Grün reco­gnised the future of this new mate­rial that was finding its way into peop­le’s homes. His motto was ‘Ein Unter­nehmer ist der, der etwas unter­nimmt’ (‘An entre­pre­neur is someone who under­takes some­thing’), which conti­nues up to the present day to be both a driving force and a guiding prin­ciple for WOUNDWO.

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1952 to 1982

Between 1952 and 1982, the company expe­ri­enced a period of growth, driven by the pionee­ring spirit of the company’s founder. The company reinvented itself over and over again. Walther Grün passed on his entre­pre­neu­rial spirit and his curio­sity to his two sons, who soon joined the family busi­ness. In 1965, the company started focu­sing on its current product line – sun protec­tion systems. The acqui­si­tion of a Swedish licence to manu­fac­ture blinds in Austria marked the begin­ning of this new phase. In 1975, the produc­tion of Vene­tian blinds, roller shut­ters, awnings and folding doors was incre­a­singly successful. As a result, a second busi­ness loca­tion was esta­blished in Graz’s Kärnt­ner­straße: 6,000 m² devoted to the manu­fac­ture of sun protec­tion products. No one could have fore­told that, just seven years later, this site would need to be enlarged first by 2,000 m², and then once again to a total of 12,000 m².

The year the WO&WO brand was born

With ‘WOhnen drinnen & WOhnen drau­ßen’ (‘Living indoors and living outdoors’), in 1994 the company relo­cated once again, in order to devote itself exclu­si­vely to ‘sun protec­tion design’ at its new site in Graz. Under this name, the first ever compre­hen­sive manual for the industry was published – from the pen of WOUNDWO. Just a year later, the specially deve­l­oped iso-design inte­rior blind was laun­ched; the model was enor­mously successful. Licences were sold throughout Europe, which had a signi­fi­cant impact on the manu­fac­ture of exte­rior blinds and on market deve­lop­ment in Slovenia. In Maribor the company entered into a joint venture with Sonal, and shortly after that WOUNDWO acquired the firm Rotec in Ober­ko­chen, Germany, and founded WO&WO-Roll­la­den­technik GmbH. 
In 1998, we acquired 74% of the shares in Dolenz Gollner GmbH, Austria’s largest awning manu­fac­turer. Awnings and façade shading systems were added to complete the product range. 

WOUNDWO Unternehmen Allgemeine Images
WOUNDWO Unternehmen Allgemeine Images

2000 - 2009

The first decade of the new mill­en­nium was all about growth. In 2000, Dolenz Gollner was fully inte­grated into the group of compa­nies, although the brand remained. As a result, the company now also had a world-wide presence with the export of parts: the compe­tence centre at Hall in Tyrol was esta­blished. This has now been enlarged to include a logis­tics centre. The Hall loca­tion is beco­ming known as a global system provider of compo­n­ents rela­ting to quality awnings. New markets are being deve­l­oped in the compo­n­ents sector: in 2003 we acquired the company Erwilo in Bochum, Germany, which, in addi­tion to its own range, produces WOUNDWO awnings for, among others, the French WOUNDWO subsi­diary at Collégien near Paris. In 2009, Foli­flex König­stetten moved into the WOUNDWO store in Vienna and has been incor­po­rated into the firm as a brand.

WO&WO is part of Adcuram Holding

Before WOUNDWO became part of the Munich-based indus­trial holding, the Grün family decided in 2006 to sell the company. Nego­tia­tions with Bava­ria’s Haas Group were very posi­tive, and there was soon talk of a joint future. A year later, WOUNDWO achieved the highest turnover in the company’s history. In 2015 the ADCURAM Group, whose foun­ders are every bit as dynamic as Walther Grün was, bought the company. As a result, the company has on board a finan­ci­ally strong owner who will actively pursue our shared vision as we move into the future.

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