Friedrich Sailer GmbH celebrates its 100th anniversary

In their own cleanroom, Sailer manufactures, among other things, storage cabinets for use in technical cleanrooms for optics, measurement technology, semiconductor, and battery production. (Copyright/Author: Friedrich Sailer GmbH)

Example of stainless steel cabinets by Sailer for the pharmaceutical industry. (Copyright/Author: Friedrich Sailer GmbH)

Example of a personnel lock from Sailer for the pharmaceutical industry. (Copyright/Author: Friedrich Sailer GmbH)

Example of a hygiene lock from Sailer for a dairy operation. (Copyright/Author: Friedrich Sailer GmbH)

Family business in the third generation: Christoph Mützel (left) and Katrin Mützel (right) with their son Felix Mützel, who also works in the company. (Copyright/Author: Friedrich Sailer GmbH)

This year, Friedrich Sailer GmbH is celebrating a special anniversary: 100 years ago, in March 1926, the then 25-year-old Friedrich Sailer founded his metalworking business in a small workshop in southern Germany's Neu-Ulm. Today, it has become a sought-after specialist for hygiene-optimized furnishing solutions—with the pharmaceutical industry as its focus, accounting for about half of its sales. Cleanroom furniture, personnel doors, and custom special solutions from Friedrich Sailer are now a permanent part of numerous GMP-regulated production environments. In addition to the pharmaceutical industry, for many years, the planning and implementation of technical cleanrooms for the high-tech sector—including optics, measurement technology, semiconductor, and battery production—have been core parts of Sailer's business. Three constants have shaped the company's success story over more than a century: pioneering spirit, a high quality and service standard, and the courage to forge new paths. The fact that numerous pharmaceutical, biotech, and high-tech companies, such as Boehringer Ingelheim, Ursapharm, CSL Behring, Miltenyi Biotec, Daiichi Sankyo, as well as Rohde & Schwarz, Zeiss, or PowerCo, rely on Sailer’s solutions is the result of this attitude. “In each generation, we have dared something new and thus developed from a specialization in stainless steel furniture to today’s furniture specialist for the pharmaceutical and high-tech industries. This willingness to recognize and purposefully seize opportunities is our true legacy and the reason why we are approaching the coming years with confidence,” says Christoph Mützel, who runs the company together with his wife Katrin in the third generation.

The history of Friedrich Sailer GmbH is a story of consistent development. Starting with cooking kettles for butcheries and plant construction for the food and chemical industries, the company early on took its first steps toward hygienically critical production environments. In the 1960s, stainless steel became Sailer’s trademark—robust, corrosion-resistant, and above all, easy to clean. The decisive impulse to think beyond individual furniture came later with the BSE crisis and the EU Hygiene Package of 2006. Sailer fundamentally further developed its business model—toward holistic, hygiene-optimized furnishing solutions for cleanrooms. Investments in a modern machine park, CAD-supported design, and an in-house robotic laser welding system created the manufacturing prerequisites to reproducibly produce complex structures with high purity requirements.

How a customer inquiry became a pharmaceutical business model

About 20 years ago, a phone call paved the way into the pharmaceutical industry: A cleanroom manufacturer inquired about a table for pharmaceutical applications but was unable to provide the specific hygienic material and construction requirements. “At this point, we realized the potential to position ourselves as a competent solution provider in this industry through in-depth material and process knowledge,” recalls Christoph Mützel. To deepen existing knowledge, Sailer subsequently launched a two-year research project on hygiene-optimized stainless steel furniture and equipment for cleanrooms and risk areas, supported by the Fraunhofer IPA. The understanding gained from this—regarding material specifications, construction details, and cleanability—made the name Sailer synonymous with the highest quality standards for many customers. “In pharmaceutical production, even a tiny detail can determine the success of an audit. Sailer thinks the process from start to finish, without us having to constantly point it out. A reliability that is worth its weight in gold in daily project work,” says Richard Weber, Senior Engineer for Construction Technology at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma GmbH & Co. KG.

A foundation that supports

What began as a research project now stands for Sailer’s claim and promise of performance: whether a single stainless steel piece of furniture or a complex personnel door, Sailer combines regulatory and procedural requirements with individual customer wishes to develop tailored furnishing solutions—from design through manufacturing to audit-proof documentation. “We have been working with Sailer for over ten years, and the culture of collaboration has never changed. Regulatory requirements that trip up other suppliers become a joint challenge—without us having to explain repeatedly why they are important. We rely on such an attitude in our industry,” says Sabine Rott, Head of Project and Personnel Management at Ursapharm Arzneimittel GmbH.

Where the highest purity meets the most sensitive technology

How closely purity and precision are linked in the high-tech industry is particularly evident in electronics manufacturing. Here, even the smallest particles can impair sensitive components. Since employees have the greatest influence on cleanliness in the cleanroom, entry control plays a crucial role. The personnel door thus becomes the first and most important control point: it manages the transition into the cleanroom and reliably keeps particles and contaminants outside. For such applications, Sailer develops tailored door solutions in stainless steel or HPL, depending on requirements. “High-tech production leaves no room for compromise—not in the processing of the components themselves nor in their environment. At Sailer, deep technical expertise and a keen eye for every small detail meet close personal support throughout all project phases. This quality standard, from consultation to implementation, convinced us completely,” says Frank Lehmann, Director of Microelectronics at Rohde & Schwarz Messgerätebau GmbH. Examples like this demonstrate that Sailer's cleanroom expertise extends far beyond the pharmaceutical industry and is in demand wherever highly sensitive manufacturing demands the highest purity.

As part of further expansion, Sailer commissioned its own ISO Class 5 cleanroom in 2019: final assembly and packaging of highly sensitive solutions, including nitrogen and XCDA storage cabinets produced for international high-tech customers, now take place under controlled conditions so they can be put into operation immediately after delivery.

With confidence into the future

Sailer’s transformation from a craft business to a technological specialist is demonstrated by numerous awards, including the Red Dot Design Award 2010, the Stahl-Innovationspreis 2012, and the Cleanzone Award 2019 for the Sailer Hygienic Design Magnet. The accumulated knowledge is actively shared with the industry through customer training and expert lectures. In 2025, the fourth generation, Felix Mützel, joined the company. “For us, tradition does not mean preservation but continuous development. With the entry of our son Felix and the planned new building, we are laying the foundation for the next chapter of Sailer’s story,” says Katrin Mützel. Sailer continues what began in 1926 in a small workshop: daring to innovate, delivering quality, and taking responsibility.