History
Centurius is a family business founded by our director, Mr. Klaus Kook, in 1998.
2023, we celebrated our 25th anniversary, which makes us extremely proud.
Why was Centurius founded? Simple: due to a great passion for Latin America.
This passion began in 1974 when Klaus, then 21 years old, moved to Peru to stay with family friends. To learn Spanish, he enrolled at the Catholic University in Lima, but it was his hands-on experience working in a local candy factory,where only Spanish was spoken, that truly accelerated his language skills and sparked his interest in industrial machinery.
After nearly two years in Peru, Klaus returned to Germany, determined to build a career in Latin America. He soon took a job in Venezuela, first with a pharmaceutical company, then with a Hamburg-based firm selling agricultural equipment. These years were marked by economic growth and opportunity, but after Venezuela’s economic downturn in the early 1980s, Klaus returned to Germany.
Back home, he worked as an export manager for Latin America until the company he worked for went bankrupt. In response, Klaus co-founded an export business focused on industrial components and machinery. After a decade of success, he left the partnership in 1997 due to disagreements and launched Centurius on his own the following year.
Centurius steadily grew and established a strong client base throughout Latin America,from the U.S. to Chile, as well as in parts of Asia. In 2015, Klaus began preparing for succession by integrating his son Bryan into the company. Tragically, Bryan passed away in 2016, prompting Klaus's daughter Cindy to join the business later that year. Since then, Cindy has taken over the daily operations, allowing Klaus to step back after decades of dedication.
Today, Klaus remains involved in a more specialized role, focusing on the sale of used trains, subways, and locomotives, an area he had successfully developed in previous years. Centurius proudly celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2023 and continues to embody the founder’s original spirit: combining technical expertise with a deep connection to Latin America.