There are companies born from business plans, investor rounds, and market analyses. Janitza electronics was born on an open field—from one man’s instinct and the courage to put people first.

Today, four decades after its founding, Markus Janitza sits at the very site his father once viewed with skepticism: Waldgirmes, Lahnau. Hundreds of people now develop, manufacture, and make decisions here. To understand the story of this company, you have to start where there was nothing.

Eugen Janitza wanted to stay in Naunheim. His company was rooted there; his employees knew the area, and so did he. But the site was located in a residential and mixed-use zone, and further expansion was no longer legally possible. Growth was about to hit a hard limit at the town boundary. Then the phone rang. The mayor of Lahnau had heard about the expansion plans and offered a plot of land in Waldgirmes. The initial reaction was brief: “What would I do in Lahnau? I’m here in Naunheim.”

But he went to see it anyway. Good transport links, room for growth, right at the entrance to the town. Skepticism quickly turned into conviction—faster than expected. “Yes, I’ll buy it,” he decided after the visit. In 1986, Janitza electronics GmbH was established on that site. Markus Janitza was about 20 years old at the time, fresh out of high school. His father brought him on board early—not only as a shareholder, but with a clear message: “He didn’t just give me a stake; he gave me responsibility. That was his real gift.”

To understand the character Janitza electronics has developed over the decades, you have to look at its early production rooms. Employees sat on either side of long tables, materials laid out in the middle. Manual work, experience, focus. No automated production lines, no digital inventory systems. Much was built through care and accumulated knowledge. Eugen Janitza led the company with a simple gesture that still resonates today. When monthly sales were strong, he would walk through the company—and order pizza for everyone. “It was his way of saying: this belongs to all of us,” Markus Janitza recalls.

Today, the company celebrates summer and Christmas events. The spirit behind it remains the same. This mindset is reflected most clearly in the long careers shaped at Janitza. Some employees have been with the company for decades—they worked under Eugen Janitza, built control cabinets, installed windows, and stepped in wherever needed. Not because it was strategic, but because there simply wasn’t the budget for external contractors. “Back then, we lacked the financial resources for many things. So we did it ourselves,” Markus Janitza recalls. Out of necessity came a mindset—and from that mindset grew a defining part of the company’s identity, still visible today in its hallways and in the faces of its people.

Another defining story has less to do with technology and more with trust. Eugen Janitza was skeptical of IT—for good reason. At a previous company, he had lost a significant amount of money on a major IT project. The authorized officer responsible passed away early, and the project ultimately failed. From then on, IT meant one thing to him: trouble, cost, and disappointment. His son saw things differently. “I came into the company passionate about IT and wanted to change things. That wasn’t always easy.”

At some point, his father gave his approval—without fully understanding every detail, but trusting him to make decisions. “I give him a lot of credit for that,” says Markus Janitza today. What followed wasn’t a large-scale digital transformation. It was a single PC on a desk. In order processing, two employees were still working on typewriters. Markus Janitza removed them and replaced them with a computer. There was no wave of enthusiasm—but the step had been taken. “Progress doesn’t just begin in development—it starts at every single desk, and in people’s mindset.”

Ten years after its founding, the company reached a tipping point. It was small, financially constrained, and much of its business consisted of supplying components to other companies—meeting external requirements simply because it had to. That created dependency. “We were basically up against the wall,” Markus Janitza recalls.

Out of this situation came one of the most pivotal decisions in the company’s history: Janitza began investing consistently in its own development. Its own products. Its own technology. Its own future. It required money, time, and effort. Success didn’t come overnight—but the course was set, and it would change everything.

One of the most important impulses for product development came from a simple observation. Eugen Janitza walked through the development department, saw a test setup with multiple analog displays—ammeter, voltmeter, power meter, frequency meter—and asked: “Why don’t we put everything into one device?”

Today, that sounds obvious. Back then, it was a major step. Voltage, current, frequency, power, reactive power, power factor—all in a single unit. One wiring harness, significantly less effort in the control cabinet. This was more than technical progress. It reflected a new mindset: not delivering what others specified, but developing ideas that create real value. Even then, Janitza was working on topics that are once again at the center today: making energy consumption controllable, managing loads, and operating systems efficiently. The terminology has changed—but the core idea remains the same: making energy visible, measurable, and controllable.

At some point, simply displaying measurements was no longer enough. The question became: how can data be stored, retrieved, and analyzed? The first steps were simple—a device that recorded current and voltage values with timestamps onto a floppy disk. Modest, but significant: for the first time, measurement data could be tracked over time. Measurements became data. Data became information. And information created new possibilities—a development that continues today with GridVis®.

After his studies, Markus Janitza spent some time in the United States. There, he recognized immense market potential and began to dream of establishing a company of his own in that market. In 2022, that dream became reality. A U.S. subsidiary was founded in Ashburn, Virginia. Today, more than 50 employees work there in sales, warehousing, service, and support. Development and production remain in Lahnau—but from there, products are shipped worldwide.

Subsidiaries in Australia, the UK, and Mexico followed. Lahnau remains the origin. “When I wake up in the morning, my car already knows where it’s going,” Markus Janitza says with a smile. “This is where everything begins.”

The AI boom, new data centers, automation, and digitalization—energy demand is rising rapidly. Grids are under increasing strain. Power quality, transparency, and measurement technology are becoming more important than ever. In the past, energy data was mainly used for billing. Today, it controls processes, regulates systems, and automates operations. This represents a profound shift—and for Janitza, it means one thing: the task isn’t getting smaller; it’s getting bigger.

“We can make a real contribution here, because we’ve been working on these topics for decades,” says Janitza. From analog displays to digital platforms—the company knows this journey firsthand. Forty years. Multiple locations. Hundreds of employees. Products in use in data centers, industrial facilities, and buildings around the world.

And yet, when Markus Janitza looks back, he thinks first and foremost of people. His father, who made bold decisions and placed his trust in him. His mother. Long-standing colleagues who have walked this path together. “A company is not built by buildings or machines. It is built by people—people who believe in it, contribute to it, and carry it through difficult times.” What grew from an open field in Lahnau began with a phone call, a site visit, and one sentence: “Yes, I’ll buy it.” Everything that followed was written by people—not just then, but today, and certainly in the future.