On August 12, 2016 Gallus’ long-standing business partner and friend Dieter Arabin suffered a fatal accident, through no fault of his own, while engaging in his beloved hobby close to his home town of Langgöns, Germany. Dieter was 67.

The relationship between the Gallus Group, the Rüesch family and Dieter Arabin, or rather the Arabin family, began in the early 1990s. Gallus became aware of the company Arsoma (Arabin Sondermaschinen), which was founded and managed by Dieter and Siegfried Arabin, through its innovative printing press solutions for the then still very new flexographic printing process. Both sides recognised the potential benefits of a possible collaboration.

In 1992, a partnership was set up in the form of a financial stake, which led in 1998 to the full takeover of Arsoma Druckmaschinen GmbH by the Gallus Group.
Even after the takeover of their company by Gallus, the relationship and partnership between Dieter and Siegfried Arabin and Gallus remained close, friendly and cooperative.

Dieter – along with his brother Siegfried – made a lasting impression on the development of Gallus and the label-printing industry, in many different ways. This includes the Gallus EM 280 machine platform, the first modular platform machine (Gallus EM series) and his vision of a highly automated and user-friendly, fully servo-driven machine, which would represent a new milestone in the label-printing industry and which subsequently came to the market as the Gallus RCS.

Equally important to his professional life were for Dieter his family and friends.

He kept up with his circle of friends mainly through the hobby he shared with his brother Siegfried, namely the restoration of old motorbikes and sidecars. The two brothers had entered motorbike races for many years.

And now fate has determined that Dieter’s life should come to an end – through no fault of his own – as he was indulging in his beloved hobby.

Gallus would like to pay tribute to a great man and a great friend, and are grateful for our many memorable encounters with him.

The hearts of his former employees and colleagues go out to his wife Maria, his sons, his brother Siegfried and all his family.