Long-time managing director of Ofa Bamberg hands over his office

Dr. Hartwig Frinke

At the end of the year 2018, Dr. Hartwig Frinke, Managing Director of the Ofa Bamberg Group, hands over his office to Rainer Kliewe, the long-standing branch manager of the company.

In January 1988, Frinke was appointed sole director of the medical aid manufacturer and since then has held this position without interruption. Since then, Ofa Bamberg (Otto Fankhänel, as it was called back then) has grown from its small beginnings with 80 employees to a group of over 600 employees. Today, after more than 30 years and with a turnover of about 80 million euros, Ofa Bamberg is one of the major suppliers in the market for aids.

In his farewell speech on 6th of December in front of a large part of Ofa's staff and numerous guests, Dr. Frinke was looking back to "three strong decades", in which standards in the market for medical compression stockings were set. In particular, Ofa was the first company to help freeing the product from the image of the "ugly rubber stocking". Especially young patients, thanks to modern colors and accessories, have the opportunity to wear a fashionable stocking that nevertheless unfolds full medical efficacy. 

Therefore, the company could call itself a fashion pioneer with complete justification - Ofa has thus contributed to the acceptance in this aid of patients with lifelong compression therapy.
The steady growth over decades has not only delighted the shareholders of the international large companies, to which Ofa belonged, but also ensured the jobs of the employees of all locations.
As a major success, the retiring managing director described the fact that the upward trend of the company took place "without major breaks". A structured continuous improvement process ensures that the business organization automatically adapts to the growth and rapid change of the healthcare market.

Frinke keeps himself covered over his plans for "non - retirement." On the one hand, he will increasingly devote himself to his large family. On the other hand, it can be assumed that he will stay connected to the medical device market.