Career
After education as a toolmaker, military service as a 16-year-old boy in the German Navy during World World War II and five years of Soviet Prisoner Of War, he worked at the German Railways and later in the cardboard industry. On September 26, 1952, Willi and Christiane Illbruck founded a small business for the production of steel wool dies in Leverkusen-Opladen. At first, the 2-man business manufactured steel die-cutting tools and later plastic parts like platters, index tabs, lottery stencils et cetera
Within 20 years, the company had grown and established subsidiaries in Switzerland, Austria, France, Spain, Australia and the United States of America. In 1980 Willi Illbruck Ohio was turned into an incorporated firm named Illbruck GmbH. In 2000 Illbruck GmbH was a privately held international company with six autonomous business units: Automotive, Sealant Systems, Sanitary Technology, Architectural Surfaces, Filtration Systems/Insulation Systems and Information Technology Services.
Illbruck GmbH had 35 locations in 15 countries worldwide and was headquartered in Leverkusen, Germany. About 3,200 employees developed and produced customer-orientated, complex and highly sophisticated system solutions Following Willi Illbruck"s death in 2004 Illbruck GmbH was restructured into Illbruck Sanitärtechnik GmbH, Pinta-Elements, Tremco Illbruck, Pinta Acoustics and RPM International Incorporated.
In 1969, Illbruck named his first sailing yacht Pinta. The inspiration for the name was the historical Pinta, the fastest of the ships used by Christopher Columbus on his voyage to America.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Illbruck dominated the German offshore yachting scene together with Udo Schütz and Hans-Otto Schumann.