The history, and hence the success of RAIDEX, dates back to 1934 when Siegfried Salomon hit upon the idea of a special marking stick for animals. Eugen Otterbach pursued this idea and in 1937, started to experiment in his family's food shop. Shortly afterwards, chemical manufacturing company by the name of Eugen Otterbach, went into production with the first animal marking sticks.
During the Second World War, the company was relocated from Gerlinger Bopser to Weissenburgstrasse 10 in Stuttgart. In the city's Neckartal restaurant, Richard Otterbach temporarily took on the task of production along with six employees, some also members of the Otterbach family. Production had to be suspended briefly following a bombing raid in 1944. Only after extensive restoration was it possible to resume operations and continue production.
By 1950, the company had ten employees working under the guidance of Eugen Otterbach. That same year, Felix Otterbach began his career as a trainee at RAIDEX. During this time, the product range was continually expanded and was considerable even then: in addition to the established animal marking sticks, animal stamp dyes, wax crayons, yellow sausage dye and, in the beginning, even milking grease were also distributed. Even until 1955, floor polish, shoe polish and curd soap rounded out the range. In 1954, the sales division was relocated to Karlsruhe-Rintheim, only production remained in Stuttgart.
At the start of the 1960's, the first products were effectively sold to Holland and France – heralding the start of increasingly successful export activities by RAIDEX GmbH. At that time, Felix and Paula Otterbach took on the responsibility for exports to the French market. In France, as in Germany, new products were launched and successfully sold - first and foremost the new tattooing inks and pastes and special forestry inks for wood mounted rubber stamps.
At the end of the 1960's, Messrs Reichel and Stiefel took control of production in Stuttgart following a tragic accident involving G. Jaeger, an employee and close relative of the founding family. The production facility was subsequently moved to wooden barracks in Dettingen/Erms. Just a short time later, the completion of the new accommodation and shipping hall was celebrated here.
1972 and 1980 saw the realisation of further construction projects, to keep pace with the ever-growing need for space. The move to the production hall in Rüdt in 1972 was marked by an equally large inaugural celebration, as was the subsequent relocation of the production and shipping facility to the RAIDEX Hall, constructed in 1980 and enlarged in 1996 by a full extension.
Since the mid-eighties, the RAIDEX GmbH range has been continually expanded and rounded out by key products. The most successful items today still include wax blocks, spray cans, tattooing inks and pastes, meat stamping inks, meat marking crayons and Sisa chalks, as well as the sheep branding fluids that went into production in 1990. Since 1994, water-based dyes and colouring solutions have also rounded out the range.
Since the nineties, the development of RAIDEX has been inextricably linked with two other names. Hannes Otterbach and Matthias Rennemann are keeping the company on course following the tried and proven path of their predecessors, which remains the guarantee of success and continued development.
At the end of the nineties, RAIDEX took another expansion step with the buyout of Pfeiffer in Mödishöfen. This and other moves set RAIDEX expanding at full pace. As a result, by the year 2000 the space available had once again become too small. The management's decision to double the production area all at once was a brave one, but in retrospect absolutely right.
Today, RAIDEX GmbH has 37 employees and is one of the world's leading manufacturers of crayons and dyes for marking animals. Through links with wholesalers and retailers in 52 countries, RAIDEX supplies to a constantly growing and satisfied customer base, confirming again and again the outstanding position held by RAIDEX products in international competition.
