Austrian envelope industry

Austrian envelope industry Ges.mbH
legal form	Limited Liability Company (Austria)
founding	1857
Seat	Hirm
Number of employees	80
Website	www.oeki.at

The Austrian envelope Ges.mbH (ÖKI) is an Austrian manufacturing company at the site Hirm in Burgenland .

history

Watermark VICTORIA MYRTLE MILL . Sheet, used in 1907 to express gratitude for the condolences on the death of Marie , exiled Queen of Hanover

The current Österreichische Kuvertindustrie Ges.mbH was founded in Vienna in 1857 by David Rudolf Pollak . At that time, envelopes were still being obtained from abroad. According to the company fama, the founder still made envelopes by hand until he brought the first envelope machine to Vienna in 1865. Together with his two sons Friedrich and Alois, the founder of this oldest Austrian envelope factory not only succeeded in combating foreign competition, but also in exporting to all civilized parts of the world .

In 1867 Friedrich Pollak, a son of the founder, came up with the revolutionary idea at the time of producing ready-made letterheads. H. To cut paper and envelopes from the same paper and to offer them packed in appropriate boxes. This was the beginning of a heyday for paper confection . The founder's sons became imperial councils and commercial councils and the company, the envelope and paper goods factory registered as DR Pollak & Sons Vienna , was mentioned several times in the communications of the Museum of Industrial Hygiene in Vienna because of its modern social facilities .

How important the Myrtle Mill really was can be seen from the fact that two business travelers visited the Middle East before the First World War and exports to Cairo were made. Also in the interwar period was u. a. exported to the UK and USA ; so it came about that after the Second World War, buyers from Australian department stores asked about the old supplier Myrtle Mill.

The original company headquarters at Oberen Donaustraße 93 (Schoellerhof) was relocated to Myrthengasse 13 on May 1, 1874. The front building on Myrthengasse was also a historical relic. The property, consisting of an old monastery and hospital, is said to have played a major role during the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683. In any case, it is known that the tent of the Turkish Grand Vizier and Commander-in-Chief Kara Mustafa was set up not far from this building. Until the company moved to Burgenland, visitors could proudly show the Turkish ball that was stuck in the old walls. The company name at that time Myrtle Mill was derived from Myrthengasse (Myrthe = English myrtle). According to company tradition, the Pollak family owned three businesses at that time, one in Vienna, one in Prague and one in Agram . To distinguish them from one another, the street name of the company headquarters was used in conjunction with Mill .

When Austria disappeared from the political map in 1938 , the more than 80 years of successful management of Myrtle Mill by the founding family also ended. Myrtle Mill - Frank Polk & Co. was only taken over by family members after the end of the war . As before, envelopes as well as business books and printing supplies were produced in the highest quality. With almost 60 employees, exercise books and envelopes wagons were produced at the traditional factory location at Myrthengasse 11–13 as an initial order for the Russian occupying power . In 1957, for the 100th anniversary, Myrtle Mill had once again become one of the leading factories for business books, office equipment and envelope manufacturers.

Rapid growth phase

After Frank Pollak died in a car accident, Myrtle Mill was sold by his widow in 1964, to a financial investor who shaped the fortunes of a group of companies with Myrtle Mill as its core until 1998. As the space for the new and large machines in Myrthengasse became too small due to the increase and modernization of the machine park, production was relocated to Burgenland in 1972 , namely to Neufeld an der Leitha , to the factory of the former HITIAG . The market for paper equipment and envelopes was further consolidated through the takeover of mostly commercial operations. This came about in 1976 through two major acquisitions - that of paper maker Robert Volk, former Theyer & Hardtmuth Margaret Mill , who was Myrtle Mill Pollak & Sons' major competitor in the 19th century, and the Heinrich Richter envelope factory . In the same year, the central office moved from Myrthengasse to the premises of the Heinrich Richter envelope factory at Kirchstettnergasse 6, in Vienna 16 . A new chapter in the company's history began for the management at the time. In addition to the two companies mentioned above, Volk and Richter and Heinrich Sachs, which had already been taken over in 1965, a large number of companies were acquired by Myrtle Mill over the years to round off and expand the product range and merged with the mother company in the interests of profitability . Among other KARAT lighters and albums ; ESCO J. Sturz & Co wire clips ; Hans Chmela Vindobona sharpening machines .

For the 125th anniversary, Myrtle Mill had around 200 employees, or almost twice that number if the employees of the subsidiary Sachs are included. In 1980 the takeover of the Eduard Smola envelope factory resulted in a merger to form the Austrian envelope industry, Myrtle Mill Smola GesmbH , which became twice as large. Later there was the last major merger, the Austrian envelope industry Myrtle Mill Smola GesmbH merged with the Roja Mill-Malek Kuvertfabriken GesmbH This resulted in today's ÖKI, the Österreichische Kuvertindustrie, Ges.mbH As a result of these mergers, the former production facility in Neufeld was at the limit of its capacity and in 1989 it was decided to relocate the entire production to Hirm .

East opening

Because of the looming global political changes, such as the loosening of the Iron Curtain , the owners at the time founded a subsidiary, EURO Kft., In 1989 to serve the Hungarian and Eastern European markets. The opening of the eastern borders and Austria's entry into the European Union not only meant the end of the quasi- monopoly position for the Austrian envelope industry, but also some developments at home and abroad that were overlooked ultimately led to some turbulence in 1998. The shares of ÖKI in EURO Kft. Were sold again in 2002.

Current

The takeover of ÖKI by the Hromatka family brought the company back to a medium-sized family business. In autumn 2007, the takeover of Jolly and Brevillier-Urban rounded off the PBS clover ( Brevillier-Urban , Cretacolor , JOLLY, ÖKI, SAX).

Today, ÖKI has an annual production capacity of one billion envelopes and is the Austrian market leader in this field.

After the re-election of the runoff election of the Austrian Federal President was postponed due to the loosing seals of the voting cards, ÖKI (from the previous contractor kbprintcom via Österreichische Staatsdruckerei ) received the order to produce voting card envelopes with classic envelope flaps, as was generally used for voting card envelopes until a few years ago Austria were common. kbprintcom is producing the voting papers again.

literature

Myrtle Mill received the national coat of arms , in: Papeterie. Magazine for paper, office and stationery, souvenir and Hobby article , Vienna, 1983, No. 8, p. 10.
The Myrtle Mill story , in the journal IPH-Information, IPHI. Bulletin of the International Working Group of Paper Historians , Vol. 16, 1982, No. 3/4, pp. 68-71.