With its broad portfolio of systems, products, services and digital applications, Voith sets standards in the markets of energy, paper, raw materials and transport.

Founded in 1867, Voith today has around 22,000 employees, sales of € 5.2 billion and locations in over 60 countries worldwide and thus is one of the larger family-owned companies in Europe.

In 1825, Johann Matthäus Voith took over his father's locksmith's workshop in Heidenheim with five employees, mainly carrying out repairs to water wheels and paper mills.

The necessary maintenance and repair of the expensive machinery offered a source of income to several workshops, particularly the locksmiths and metalworkers in what was still a small town at the time.

According to town council records dated September 28, 1849, the assets of Johann Matthäus Voith in 1849 amounted to more than 7,000 fl., and eight years later grew to an estimated 15,000  fl.

In 1850, Johann Matthäus Voith was summoned to serve on the town council and, in 1855, along with nine other Heidenheim entrepreneurs, he received a grant to attend the international exhibition in Paris.

After Voelter's paper mill was destroyed by a fire in 1864, Voith received its first major order for the fabrication of eight hollander beaters, which required building another machine hall.

The company's name was changed from Mechanicus Voith to Mechanische Werkstätte und Eisengießerei (Mechanical Workshops and Foundry).

On November 18, 1869, the company applied for official registration in the Commercial Register and changed its name to Maschinenfabrik und Eisengießerei von J. M. Voith in Heidenheim.

[9] Voith added another business segment to its existing product lines of paper machines and stock preparation technology – with the construction of a 100-HP Henschel-Jonval turbine.

[10] The reason for this new turbine production segment was likely because the Heidenheim businesses were suffering from a lack of motive power due to the low supplies of iron ore and coal in the Württemberg region, and that well into the 19th century their largest energy source was hydropower from the River Brenz.

[15] It is assumed that the large proportion of women and children working in the textile industry could also have been a factor to explain why social democracy and trade unions were slow to become established in Heidenheim.

That the conflicts at Voith began to accumulate before World War I is held to have been due to the management practices of the company rather than – as often claimed – because of the metalworkers' union official Sebastian Geiger.

Walther managed the St. Pölten plant, Hermann took charge of the commercial side of the Heidenheim headquarters, and Hanns was responsible for the technical department.

In the same year, Voith built what at that time was the largest paper machine for newsprint, with a wire width of 5.2 m, for Holmen Bruks in Hallstavik, Sweden.

In 1922 , Voith started building gear transmissions where its long-standing expertise in fluid dynamics acquired in previous turbine projects provided an advantage.

At the 1958 World Fair in Brussels, Voith was awarded a gold medal for the first turbo gear units for diesel-hydraulic locomotive drive systems built for Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Railways).

[31] In 1961, Voith supplied what was at that time Europe's largest newsprint paper machine with a wire width of 8.3 m to the Ahlström publishing house in Warkaus, Finland.

In 1974, Voith established a company in Appleton, Wisconsin and in the same year acquired a majority stake in Morden Machines in Portland, Oregon.

In 2008, Voith gathered with 200 customers and partners from all over the world to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the "Brunnenmühle" in Heidenheim, which had previously been upgraded at an investment cost of €20 million.

Around 300 engineers work at Voith headquarters in Heidenheim and four other locations around the world, in São Paulo, Brazil; York, Pennsylvania, USA; Noida, India, and Västerås, Sweden.

At the Shipbuilding, Machinery & Marine Technology trade fair in 2010, Voith Turbo and one of its rivals each presented for the first time a rim-driven thruster for ships.

For this plant, Voith supplied Spanish energy utility Ente Vasco de la Energia (EVE) with the equipment for the 16 Wells turbine units, which have a total output of 300 kilowatts and produce enough power for 250 households.

Following the successful completion and in-depth analysis of the one-year test run in a model power plant near the South Korean island of Jindo Voith systematically continued its tidal current program with the construction of a one-megawatt machine on a 1:1 scale and developed the innovative low-maintenance tidal current turbine technology at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Scotland to a commercial scale.

In 2013, the most powerful generator-turbine unit in Voith's history went into operation at the Chinese hydropower plant Xiluodu on the River Jinsha.

On July 31, 2020, Voith acquired a majority stake in the Croatian small hydropower company Sintaksa, which specializes in products and services for electromechanical and automation systems.

ARGO-HYTOS, headquartered in Switzerland, develops and produces hydraulic components and systems with a focus on the off-highway sector (agricultural machinery, construction equipment and material handling vehicles).

[73] Voith GmbH & Co. KGaA, which is headquartered in Heidenheim an der Brenz, is the operational management holding company for the Group.

[78] Voith products are used in many large hydropower plants like Niagara (1903), Macagua (1959 - 1963) in Venezuelam, here install 6 Francis Turbine, Itaipú (1976) and the Three Gorges Dam (2003).

The construction of the Belo Monte Dam in the Brazilian part of the Amazon Basin, in which Voith Hydro is also involved, began in January 2012.