seca GmbH & Co. KG. is looked upon as being the leader in the sector of medical

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 weighing and measuring. seca develops, produces and sells weighing scales and measuring instruments. Its products are exported to more than 110 countries. The company’s headquarters is in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 and it has branches in Austria, France, England, Switzerland, Japan, China, Mexico and the USA.

Foundation and history

In 1840, locksmith A.C.C. Joachims set up on his own in Hamburg and began to build scales. He had acquired the necessary know-how from the Strasbourg mechanic and monk Quintenz who had invented the decimal scale in 1821. In the course of the next thirty years, the locksmith’s workshop developed into a small factory. However, the business stagnated when Joachims died in 1874. Things started to improve again when Frederik Vogel, a young businessman, purchased the scales factory in 1888. He expanded the product range and introduced the brand name seca which he had registered in 1897.

The company survived World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 in the 20th century and then Frederik Vogel passed the management over to his son Robert. Robert Vogel steered the company through World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

  and began with the successful reconstruction immediately after the end of the war. When Robert Vogel died in 1966, his son Sönke joined the company.

In 1970, Sönke Vogel decided in favour of a new corporate concept. Since then focus has been on medical measuring and weighing, on products which are needed for diagnosis and therapy purposes in medicine in order to determine the precise weight of a patient. The product portfolio has been consistently expanded and is available on all international markets. Initially, seca was a supplier among many but is now market leader for these products.

Corporate structure

seca GmbH & Co. KG. has the following subsidiaries:

• seca France, Semur-en-Auxois, France
• seca United Kingdom, Birmingham, Great Britain
• seca Schweiz, Reinach, Switzerland
• seca Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
• seca North America West, Diamond Bar, USA
• seca North America East, Hanover, USA
• seca Nihon, Chiba City, Japan
• seca Zhong Guo, Hangzhou, China

Products

The range includes:

• Baby scales
• Column scales
• Flat scales
• Multifunction and wheelchair scales
• Bed and dialysis
  Dialysis
  In medicine, dialysis is a process for removing waste and excess water from the blood, and is primarily used to provide an artificial replacement for lost kidney function in people with renal failure...
  
  scales
• Height measuring and measuring instruments