Our corporate beginnings go back to 1835, to a company founded under the name Franz Laubek. Its initial business was the production of stationary steam engines and drive elements for the young and booming industry. In 1895 the company was registered under the name Franz Laubek’s Successors.

In 1897, under the management of Franz Starlinger, the company changed its production to textile machinery, particularly machines for making passementerie – fringes, trims, braiding.
In 1913 the company was registered with the authorities as Starlinger & Co.

1920 again saw a change in production, to specialised winding machines for the weaving industry.

With the development in 1955 of new winders specially designed for man-made fibres, Starlinger was pioneering a new field. At that time, artificial fibres were reaching the European market for the first time (in 1963, the developers of polypropylene were awarded the Nobel Prize for their innovation).

Franz X. Starlinger-Huemer (1933-2002) took over ownership and management of the company in1959; his wife, Erna Starlinger-Huemer, became commercial director. In Weissenbach an der Triesting, the first assembly hangar was erected in 1968 on the grounds of the former Pittel Cement Works. With the industrial production of circular looms.Starlinger took on an entirely new focus, that of an export-oriented enterprise. A new generation of winders, together with specially designed sack conversion lines, printing machines, baling presses and externally sourced tape extrusion lines completed the plant for production of woven sacks.