Franz Haas - the history

From the first wafer iron to the world market leadership

During World War II, the Viennese master locksmith Josef Haas shifted some of his machinery to Kaplice (in today’s Czech Republic) where his son Franz was entrusted with managing this site. Due to orders for the repair of wafer irons, Franz Haas became interested in machines for the production of wafers. Back to Vienna after the end of the war, he already had concepts for modern wafer production in mind.

In 1948 the time had come: the first manually operated wafer machine, the HV6, was presented. Driven by the growing success, new versions of the machine suitable for modern wafer production were introduced soon afterwards. Based on the success of the HV6, the development of ice cream cone baking ovens was started beginning of the fifties. In 1966, Franz Haas founded the company Franz Haas Waffelmaschinen.

In 1975, the company moved to today´s premises in Leobendorf. This was followed by the foundation of subsidiaries in several countries and by the acquisition of several companies – to read more, go to the history of the Haas Group.