We proudly look back on our 100-year company history. The foundation stone laid in 1919 for the pioneering work of the founder Walter Storz runs through the different epochs and generations like a golden thread. In spite of the continuously increasing requirements towards medical devices, our company is well prepared for the future. Our aspiration is to continue with the untiring pioneering spirit of our founder. There are many activities and ideas that are being implemented with our qualified Stoma team, as well as committed partners, customers and friends.

The newly introduced Signet visualizes the cutting-edge performance strength of Storz am Mark with production and Stoma with specialist consultation.

The goals were and still are large and the ideas are nearly limitless. In 2007 this led to the introduction of two new product brands. stoma suture® is a reliable wound closure with tried and tested sterile needle and thread combinations. And with stoma ossecure® high precision bone screws made of steel and titanium were introduced as indication-related solutions in the area of bone surgery – with subsequent patent registration of the micro-screw in 2009.

Practicing dentists must regularly fulfil their further training obligations and certify their points through visiting acknowledged training courses. Since the 1990s Stoma supports practical training courses of selected partners with up-to-date Stoma instruments and consumable materials. In 2003 Stoma decided to also organize practical training courses themselves. The participants train and hereby intensify their understanding acquired during the theoretical part at close quarters and indication related. And all this under professional instruction from experienced and reputable national as well as international speakers. At a later time the Stoma Academy was brought into being for the organization and support of these training courses, which is the further training academy of Stoma.

Through the proximity to the market and the daily meetings with dentists, specialists and users throughout the world Stoma developed a first-class feeling for the requirements of the market and for the potentials of product improvement. In the years from 1997 to 1999 this led to a veritable firework of strategically significant innovations and product range developments, which also today decisively contributed towards the success of Stoma. In 1997 the program stoma color-stick® was introduced into the market, which through its color coding offers a real user benefit. Already one year later with stoma p.i.c.® a protective organization concept with trays, containers and accessories was added, which was enthusiastically accepted by the market. And not even 12 months later with the stoma hy-grip® a hygienic grip system was presented to the market, which was impressive through ergonomics, haptic and surface design.

Training has a big tradition at Stoma. And also in the selection of the trainees the principle of equal opportunities has always been exercised. So it is not surprising that as early as at the beginning of the 1980s, Stoma had trained one of the first female apprentices as surgical mechanic in Tuttlingen. Tuttlingen, also known as „World centre for medical technology“ or „Town of the healing knives“, is the home of the vocational training colleges for numerous educational medical technology branches. With its roots in the town centre and today‘s location in Liptingen, which is only just 10 km away, Stoma has a high level of attractiveness for trainees and specialists alike.

Siegmar Storz was well known for always wanting to be at the forefront of technology. And in 1973 he had thus purchased a computer as one of the first companies in and around Tuttlingen. The „Mael 4000“ model had 2K working memory that was later upgraded to 8K. Siegmar Storz engaged himself with this new world with tremendous ambition and thereby turned Stoma into a figurehead for new technologies. While he was celebrating the successful commissioning of the EDP at Stoma with his team in the Restaurant Waldeck in Tuttlingen, the management of one of today‘s worldwide largest companies in the sector were sitting at the next table. Even decades later Siegmar Storz remembers not without pride that at this time the gentlemen were only discussing about the introductory phase of their planned EDP unit.

For his merits in the development of dental instruments and in the area of steam sterilization Walter Storz was awarded the Diesel Medal in bronze by the German Inventors Association in 1964.

In 1959 the company was already able to look back on a 40-year company history rich in success and events.

As early as in the 1950s, Walter Storz gave careful thought to patient safety and hygiene considerations over and above the instrumentation. Out of this motivation in 1956 he invented breathing protection glasses, which were worn by the dentist during the treatment and which protected him as well as the patient against the transmittal of microbes. With this innovative solution Stoma was able to develop additional trust and further establish its reputation as company that is able to utilize the suggestions and impulses through the direct marketing to develop practice-oriented products.

Today road shows are organized, as early as at the beginning of the 1950s Walter Storz went on tour with the treatment units Stoma „Senior“ and „Junior“, for which he managed to register a patent as early as in 1934. He installed two of his units into a VW bus and drove it to customer visits and demonstrations. The direct marketing genes can simply not be denied.

The times were set on growth and the crisis of the 1920s had been overcome. In 1937 Walter Storz constructed a dignified house on the Zeppelinstraße 40 in Tuttlingen, into which apart from his family also his company moved to. On the ground floor there was a workshop, as well as office and storage rooms. On the first floor there were the private quarters and on the top floor there was space for a room and the attic. In the same year Walter Storz married a second time, after his first wife had died shortly after giving birth to his daughter Heidrun.

In 1934 the inventive entrepreneurial spirit Walter Storz received his first patent, which would be followed by many more. The trapping device on tooth forceps solved the problem of many dentists. Through the special shape extracted tooth and root fragments were „trapped“ and were not able to land in the throat cavity of the patient. Patents like this increasingly helped the young entrepreneur to the breakthrough. So apart from the products that were purchased from Jetter & Scheerer, own products were increasingly developed, produced and sold. The foundation for an own fabrication division was laid.

Even as a child, Walter Storz had dealing with customers handed down to him in his cradle because his father Otto and his grandfather Johannes already had a business in Tuttlingen. As a young man Walter Storz held several positions, until in 1919 at an age of 25 years he decided to found the company Walter Storz am Markt for the marketing of dental instruments. The addition „am Markt“ was important because during those years there were also other companies with his name and the mail was often delivered to the wrong address. Later when he had already established a name for himself and moved away from the market square with the company, he simply left out the „t“ with the justification that he was now no longer located at the market square.