Inside the new factory for shoe lasts and punching tools, designed by Carl Benscheidt and Walter Gropius, production is running at full speed. Survival in the first difficult period, i.e. the First World War, was possible only by luck and clever behaviour.

Fagus cannot complain about having too few orders. The first shoe last milling machine constructed by themselves is installed. As its technology is far ahead of the other machines of that time, other shoe last factories wanted to buy it too. This was the beginning of the Fagus wood-working machinery division.

In 1936 the 25th company anniversary was celebrated. Experts judged the Fagus Factory to be the most modern shoe last factory in the world. It also gets the second difficult period, i.e. the Second World War, behind it. A British officer of the occupying forces avoids the threatened dismantling of the factory by classifying it as a historical monument.

Production gets off the ground slowly. The time of economic miracle also lent Fagus wings to pastures new. Shoe lasts of all kinds are again in great demand. 450.000 pairs of shoe lasts were produced in 1954 – this figure has never again been reached. The market is also in need of high-capacity shoe last machines.

On 8th April 1961, the Fagus Factory had already been in existence for 50 years. The company was continuously developing. In 1970, the great-grandsons of the company owner Carl Benscheidt, i.e. the brothers Gerd and Ernst Greten, founded Greten Consulting (GreCon) as well as in 1973 GreCon Electronics.

The two brothers acquire the business shares and take over the management of Fagus‑GreCon in the fourth generation. GreCon Plant Engineering supplies turn-key factories worldwide and GreCon Electronics manufactures all types of measuring systems that are needed by the wood-based panels industry. In addition, by inventing the spark extinguishing system, they develop a product to assure uninterrupted production even where sparks are created.

The machinery division concentrates on the construction of machines destined to process solid timber, these are particularly finger-jointing lines and optimizing cut-off saws. Beginning from 1982, the complete historical shoe last factory is being restored carefully.

The machinery division contracts a joint venture with the former competitor Dimter (a company belonging to WEINIG AG). This partnership with WEINIG is very successful; while the site at Alfeld becomes the biggest manufacturer worldwide of finger-jointing lines; the site at Illertissen becomes the leading supplier worldwide of optimizing cut-off saws.

Fagus-GreCon was a peripheral project of the World Exhibition „EXPO 2000“ and installed a permanent exhibition treating the topics of architecture, Bauhaus, shoes and wood.

The x-ray scanner, derived from the GreCon-EuroGreComat, is the basis of a completely new measuring system for the wood-based panel industry and later also for many other kinds of industry. The “third pillar” of GreCon Electronics is born.

Fagus starts a joint venture with company Top-Form and they found Fagus-Top-Form Thailand – a production plant for high-precision shoe lasts in Thailand. The GreCon range of measuring systems is extended e.g. by the HPS and the CS scale. All other measuring systems are modernized resulting in the generation 5000. The first high precision scale HPS is delivered in 2009. The global economic and financial crisis required extreme efforts from all employees and management in 2009 to get through this crisis successfully.

Fagus becomes 100 - The Fagus Factory celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2011 and the classification being of UNESCO world cultural heritage value. Since its foundation the building has been continuously used for production: now, as before, Fagus shoe lasts are still part of the product range but today's products also include measurement and fire protection systems sold under the GreCon trademark, as well as finger-jointing lines sold under the Grecon Dimter trademark. Of particular interest is the Fagus-Gropius-Exhibition situated in the centre of the production halls, which can be visited by everyone.