- Heraeus Group is a family-owned German conglomerate spanning precious metals, technology metals, quartz glass and medical materials
- Traces its roots to a Hanau pharmacy acquired in 1851 by founder Wilhelm Carl Heraeus
- Generated €25.6 billion in revenue in 2023 across more than 100 operating companies in 40 countries
- Runs one of the world’s largest platinum, gold and silver refining and recycling businesses
- Produces neodymium iron boron magnet materials through its Heraeus Remloy division
- Led by CEO Frank Stietz since May 2025, succeeding long-serving chief Jan Rinnert
Heraeus Group — Company Overview
Heraeus Group is a privately held German technology and precious metals conglomerate headquartered in Hanau, near Frankfurt. The business traces back to a 17th-century family pharmacy, but its modern identity dates to 1851, when pharmacist and chemist Wilhelm Carl Heraeus took over the family pharmacy and began developing techniques to melt platinum in commercial volumes — a metal goldsmiths of the era struggled to process due to its extreme melting point. That breakthrough founded what became the W.C. Heraeus platinum smelting business.
The company remains almost entirely family-owned. Heraeus Holding GmbH sits atop the group structure, with around 200 family shareholders; company founder descendants Jürgen Heraeus and his siblings hold roughly a quarter of the shares directly. The business is organised into four broad fields — Metals and Recycling, Healthcare, Semiconductor and Electronics, and Industrials — split across 15 operating companies as of the 2023 restructuring.
Key Assets & Operations
The Metals and Recycling division is the group’s core. Heraeus Precious Metals trades, refines and recycles platinum, gold, silver and palladium at industrial scale, supplying automotive catalyst manufacturers, electronics producers and the investment bar market. As one of the largest secondary refiners of platinum group metals globally, its trading and recycling volumes sit alongside platinum and palladium as directly relevant reference points for buyers tracking supply from recycled versus mined sources. Heraeus Remloy, a separate operating company within the same division, produces neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) materials used in permanent magnets — placing Heraeus alongside rare earth magnet supply chains that feed EV motors and wind turbines.
The Semiconductor and Electronics division supplies bonding wires, conductive polymers and photoresists for chip and display manufacturing through Heraeus Electronics and Heraeus Epurio, while Heraeus Covantics produces high-purity quartz glass and specialty fibres for optics and semiconductor fabrication. In Healthcare, Heraeus Medical is an established supplier of bone cement and implant coatings for orthopaedic surgery, a business line extended by the 2021 acquisition of US-based Norwood Medical. The Industrials division includes Heraeus Electro-Nite, which builds sensors for molten metal measurement in steelmaking, and a minority stake in Smart Steel Technologies, an AI-based steel process software provider.
Latest Projects & Developments
Heraeus has actively reshaped its portfolio since 2020. The Norwood Medical acquisition in 2021 was one of the largest in company history, followed in 2022 by the purchase of PET recycling firm Perpetual Technologies, rebranded Revalyu Resources, and a 50:50 joint venture with BASF — BASF Heraeus Metal Resource — to recover precious metals from spent automotive catalysts for high-tech industries in China. In 2023 the group divested its platinum temperature sensor business (Heraeus Nexensos) to Yageo and sold its specialty lighting unit, Heraeus Noblelight, to US-based Excelitas Technologies. A June 2024 acquisition brought in Canada’s McCol Metals, specialists in recovering iridium from spent electrodes — a capability relevant to fuel cell and green hydrogen supply chains given iridium’s role as an electrolyser catalyst.
In 2025, Heraeus exited photovoltaics manufacturing, selling its Shanghai and Singapore photovoltaic silver paste businesses to China’s Haitian Group for roughly €66 million, as confirmed in the company’s own corporate overview. The same year brought a leadership transition: operational managing director Frank Stietz became chairman of the management board in May 2025, succeeding Jan Rinnert after twelve years leading the family business — a change the group detailed in its official 2025 leadership announcement.
Heraeus Group in the Global Critical Minerals Market
Heraeus occupies a distinct niche among critical minerals suppliers: it is a downstream refiner and recycler rather than a miner, competing for secondary precious metal supply with players such as Umicore in Europe’s PGM recycling market. Its scale in platinum, gold, silver and palladium refining makes it a significant, if largely behind-the-scenes, participant in the same supply chains covered by automotive catalyst demand, electronics manufacturing and precious metal investment markets. The BASF joint venture in particular positions Heraeus inside China’s catalyst recycling infrastructure, while its NdFeB and quartz glass operations connect it to rare earth magnet and semiconductor material supply chains that increasingly draw policy attention in the US, EU and China.
Heraeus Group Company Snapshot
| Metric | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1851 (platinum smelting business); family pharmacy dates to 1660 |
| Headquarters | Hanau, Germany |
| Ownership | Private, family-owned (~200 family shareholders) |
| CEO | Frank Stietz (since May 2025) |
| Primary materials | Platinum, gold, silver, palladium, NdFeB magnet alloys, quartz glass |
| Revenue | €25.6 billion (2023) |
| Employees | 16,400 (2023) |
What does Heraeus Group produce?
Heraeus Group refines and recycles platinum, gold, silver and palladium, and produces neodymium iron boron magnet materials, quartz glass, semiconductor materials, and medical products such as bone cement.
Where are Heraeus Group’s main operations located?
Heraeus Group is headquartered in Hanau, Germany, and operates more than 100 companies across roughly 40 countries.
How large is Heraeus Group’s business?
Heraeus Group generated €25.6 billion in revenue in 2023 with around 16,400 employees.
What is Heraeus Group working on currently?
Recent moves include acquiring Canada’s McCol Metals for iridium recovery, exiting photovoltaic silver paste manufacturing, and a 2025 leadership transition to CEO Frank Stietz.
Who owns Heraeus Group?
Heraeus Group is privately held by around 200 members of the founding Heraeus family, with descendants of founder Wilhelm Carl Heraeus retaining direct shareholdings.
