Heye International
| Heye International GmbH
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Company with limited liability |
| founding | 1799/2001 |
| Seat |
Obernkirchen , Lower Saxony , Germany
|
| Number of employees | approx. 400 (2015) |
| sales | approx. € 100 million (2015) |
| Branch | Machine and plant construction for the container glass industry |
| Website | www.heye-international.com |
Heye International (HI), based in Obernkirchen, is a plant and mechanical engineering company . The company specializes in the planning and support of complete systems for the production of glass containers ( bottles and closable jars). The globally active company, which has been part of the Ardagh Group since 2003 , has another headquarters in Stadthagen and Nienburg .
history
From the foundation to the Second World War
The company goes back to the glassworks founded by Johann Conrad Storm in Obernkirchen in 1799 . In 1823 Caspar Hermann Heye joined the company as a partner and in 1827 the factory took on the name "Glashütte Schauenstein". 1842 Caspar Hermann Heye sole owner of the factory, which from then under Hermann Heye changed its name . In 1847, the relief fund for needy Heye employees and their relatives was founded. In 1864, Ferdinand Heye, the son of Caspar Hermann Heye, had his inheritance paid off and thus founded the Gerresheimer Glashütte .
The company grew extensively in the 19th century through acquisitions. In 1855, the Wendthöhe glassworks on the Bückeberg near Stadthagen , the Steinkrug glassworks on the Deister in 1859 and the Annahütte glass factory in Lower Lusatia in 1884 . In 1871 the Heye'schen glass factory was opened in Nienburg / Weser .
In 1888 the company diversified and began lignite mining with the establishment of FC Th. Heye Braunkohlenwerke “Annahütte” . A milestone in the company's history was the introduction of fully automatic Owens production machines in 1906. In 1913 a glass factory in Flensburg was acquired.
After the Steinkrug glassworks was given up in 1928, Heye was hit hard by the global economic crisis . In 1931 the glass factory in Nienburg and in 1932 the Wendthöhe glassworks near Stadthagen were shut down. The glass factory in Flensburg stopped production in 1939.
Post-war history to bankruptcy
After the Second World War , Heye lost the factories in the Soviet occupation zone through expropriation . The Annahütte glass factory was continued as a state-owned company (VEB) in the former GDR from 1945 to 1990. Glass production ended there with the turnaround . The Annahütte brown coal works were also nationalized.
In the Federal Republic of Germany , the production facilities were badly damaged by war damage. In 1958 the owners of the company changed. The industrial family Baum joined the company as partners and managing directors. The introduction of the first IS production machines also made an important technical change.
In 1966, the company diversified again and started the area of mechanical and plant engineering, which is today's business area. With the development of the world's first lightweight glass bottle (the 0.33 l Paderborn beer bottle weighed 135 g) in 1968, an innovation that was recognized in the industry was achieved.
Since the 1970s there has been international expansion and the acquisition of numerous company shares . Heye Glas celebrated its 200th birthday in 1999.
Bankruptcy, sale and reorganization
In 2001 Heye employed around 2500 people worldwide and achieved sales of over EUR 250 million. 967 employees were employed in Obernkirchen. Hermann Heye KG had to file for bankruptcy in 2001. The reasons were, on the one hand, the price drop for hollow glass by 30% and, on the other hand, the increase in energy costs primarily due to the introduction of the eco-tax and the advance of the PET bottle . As a result, in 2002 the holdings in Sotancro Emballagem de Vidro SA (Amadora, Portugal), Ricardo Gallo (Marina Grande, Portugal) and Huta Szkla Dzialdowo (Dzialdowo, Poland) were sold. The remaining company was sold on January 1, 2003 to the Irish container glass manufacturer Ardagh.
The two business areas were legally separated and managed under the umbrella of a holding company of the parent company. The container glass division with the Obernkirchen and Germersheim plants was transferred to HEYE-GLAS GmbH, now Ardagh Glass GmbH.
Since then, the mechanical and plant engineering sector has been operating as Heye International GmbH and today employs over 400 people.
Former subsidiaries
Glass factory in Nienburg
Rich quartz sand deposits in the vicinity of the city in combination with the good transport connections by railroad and Weser prompted Theodor Heye to found a glass factory in Nienburg around 1870. At first, 20 glassmakers were employed on one furnace. The company soon expanded and employed up to 1,000 people. One of the reasons for this was that Heye had a factory settlement built. In addition to the residential buildings, there were communal facilities such as wash houses, a hot bathing establishment, a bakery as well as consumption and canteen and the Nordertor school.
Despite the social offers, there were also riots. In 1901 there was a glassmaker's strike in the glass factory, which lasted seven months and was unsuccessful from the point of view of the striking workers. With the introduction of the glass machine in the following years, most of the glassmaker's jobs were rationalized .
The glass factory was closed in 1931 as a result of the Great Depression.
Customers
Plant construction for industrial glass production, like the steel industry or aviation, is characterized by international structures. Heye International therefore equips glass factories worldwide. Many of the approximately 550 industrial glassworks worldwide are among the company's customers. These include the world's largest container glass manufacturers, for example Owens-Illinois (OI), Verallia ( Saint-Gobain ), Gerresheimer and the Ardagh Group. There are also family businesses with one or a few locations in their customer base.
Web links
- Heye International website
- History of the company
- History of the Nienburg glass factory (PDF file; 1.13 MB)
- Pressed glass correspondence about the plant in Annahütte (with picture) (PDF file; 368 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Letter from the European Commission of December 20, 2001, AZ: C (2001) 4377 Online ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 23 kB)
- ^ "Heye-Glas in insolvency proceedings"; in: FAZ from June 1, 2001, page 17
Coordinates: 52 ° 15 '38.8 " N , 9 ° 8' 18.6" E