Founded: 1950
In Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Otto Bürkle | Founder of commercial agency and wholesale business of pharmaceutical products Stuttgart - W.

After the turmoil of the second world war, Otto Bürkle went into business in Stuttgart as an independent commercial agent.
The office was set up in his 3-room private residence on the west side of Stuttgart.
The warehouse was located in the basement of his parents' house in Stuttgart Heslach.
A passenger car operating on wood gas served as the company car.

Together with the chemical and pharmaceutical products, bottling devices were also sold that could be used in chemist's shops to dispense the household cleaning agents of the day (hydrochloric acid, bleach water, caustic soda, concentrated bleach/chlorine bleaching lye, liquid ammonia, water disinfecting agent, etc.) safely from large glass bottles. At the time these liquids, most of which are aggressive, were bottled from heavy glass carboys by tipping and pouring through a funnel, which was somewhat hazardous.
Otto Bürkle recognised this problem and offered chemists a solution with the OTAL bottling device. These pumps are still produced today!

Veit Bürkle was 24 years old at this time and had completed training as a tool maker specialising in injection moulded plastic at OTAL in Lörrach.

Within a short time the commercial agency was terminated and business focused entirely on the bottling and laboratory equipment product groups.

Company moves to Lörrach

In 1981 Veit Bürkle bought his instructional business, a plastic processing company, and moved the location of the company from Stuttgart to Lörrach. Many new products were developed in the ensuing years in the area of laboratory devices and bottling equipment and die cast tools were manufactured.

Basler Strasse 83, Lörrach – birthplace of many innovative products.

Introduction of DTP. Since the end of the 1980s print publications can be created on the computer with DTP (desktop publishing applications).

Printing of the first four-colour catalogue in the plastics laboratory equipment industry.

A web page already existed in the year 1995. From 1998 it was also possible to shop on the internet, the first Bürkle Internet shop went online.

Founding of the subsidiary Bürkle Metall GmbH in Eimeldingen. The subsidiary takes over the production and assembly of Bürkle metal products.

Acquisition of Company management of Bürkle GmbH by long-time Managing Director Martin Saint-Denis.

Opening of the subsidiary Burkle Inc. in Bohemia, New York. The first international subsidiary is responsible for the distribution in the North American market.

www.burkle-inc.com

Extension of the clean room and automated production by a robot cell. From production through quality control to packaging, automated production takes care of everything independently and under clean room conditions.

Due to a generous enlargement the storage area was extended to 4500 sqm. This created space for the previously independent subsidiary Bürkle Metall. With the unification of plastic and metal production under one roof, Bürkle GmbH was merged with Bürkle Metall GmbH.

The protection of the environment is the responsibility of all of us. We as a company are also aware of this. It is our goal to act in a way, that conserves resources as much as possible as well as reducing emissions – and through our sustainable actions, we have also been certified as a Climate Neutral Company.

Our samplers made from BIO-PE carry the ACT label from My Green Lab since 2023. 

The ACT label provides clear, independently verified information on the environmental impact of laboratory products and thus facilitates the procurement of environmentally friendly products. It stands for Accountability, Consistency and Transparency and shows how our products perform in various sustainability categories. Each product is assigned an Environmental Impact Factor (EIF). 

Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility are of the utmost importance to us at Bürkle. We want to continuously grow, learn and implement new things in these areas. That is why we have been working with EcoVadis, a renowned external auditing organisation, since 2023 to carry out a comprehensive assessment of our CSR measures and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.