When the company LAUFEN was founded in Switzerland in 1892, sanitary conditions were well below today’s standards and level of convenience – standards to which LAUFEN, the only sanitary porcelain manufacturer producing exclusively in Europe,contributed.

The history of some of the company’s production sites goes back even further in time. Around 1878, the pioneer of the mechanized production of sanitary ceramics was a factory belonging to the Austrian monarchy. Not only tradition, but also the well-established situation of the various European manufacturing sites in their home markets of Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic, have helped lay the secure foundations of LAUFEN quality.

The aim of LAUFEN back then and also today is to be a leader in technology, service and design. As early as the 1980s, the most efficient injection molding technology in the field of ceramics processing was invented in Switzerland by LAUFEN, a breakthrough that constituted a lasting contribution to industrial production. Just as important for LAUFEN are the continuing developments in the field of design: Wall mounted toilets and floor-standing washbasins, for instance, have made a new aesthetic possible.

LAUFEN has now widened its expertise and its portfolio of sanitary ware, bathtubs, furniture and accessories by adding faucets to the product range. In 1854, Charles Kugler founded a small company for brass products in Lausanne. The first water and gas valves in Switzerland were produced here in 1863. Faucets have been manufactured at the Laufen site since 2009.