Schilter (company)
Schilter was a Swiss manufacturer of vehicles for mountain farming . The vehicle forge in Stans is considered a pioneer in the field of mechanized mountain farming and, at the best of times, produced over a thousand vehicles a year.
history
Thomas Schilter founded a small mechanical engineering company in Schmiedgasse in Stans in 1952 with his brother Josef and his father Alois . In 1958 they presented the first agricultural transport vehicle . It was an uncomplicated vehicle that was undemanding to maintain and easy to repair. With its 9-hp petrol engine , Schilter aimed to replace the common single-axle motor mowers with drive-axle trailers.
In the 1960s, new models for agricultural , municipal and forestry use were constantly emerging . Production took place with up to 270 employees in a newly built assembly hall on Stansstaderstrasse. 1000 vehicles were made every year. These were exported to Scandinavia . The company attracted a lot of attention at the 1972 DLG trade fair with the presentation of its new type of tractor concept with all-wheel drive . The Schilter Universal Tractor was presented at the same time as the MB-Trac and Deutz INTRAC .
However, the company's rapid growth and the too rapid series maturity of its products had a negative impact on quality, so that warranty claims brought the company into distress. Like other vehicle manufacturers, Schilter experienced restructuring in agriculture and the subsequent market slump in the 1970s. After the takeover of the business by the Nidwaldner Kantonalbank in 1975, the company founder left the company. The bank sells the company a little later at a loss. In 1978, the Nidwalden district administrator had to speak 18 million francs about the restructuring of the bank, because Schilter and two other companies had provided too generously with money.
High production costs and operational errors led to the company's insolvency in 1976 , and Thomas Schilter left the company at the same time. The Maschinenfabrik Grapha acquired the company, but presented in 1980, the production of the vehicles at the site Stans.
The Nencki AG company continued to produce some types in Langenthal, and Thomas Schilter AG also built the Thomas Schilter Wiesel and the Transporter 3500. This company also went bankrupt in 1989.
In 1993 the company Schiltrac Fahrzeugbau GmbH was founded , which took over the company Schilter Fahrzeugbau AG , which had been founded a few years earlier, and continues the development and production of the vans under the brand name Schiltrac .
literature
- Manuel Gemperle, Hermann Wyss: Thomas Schilter: Pioneer of mountain mechanization . Tractor construction book sales, Niederbüren 2007.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schilter - the history of the Stanser Maschinenfabrik (PDF) , brochure for the exhibition in the Nidwalden Museum, October 2017, accessed on March 23, 2017
- ↑ a b Nostalgie , on the website of Schiltrac Fahrzeugbau, accessed on March 26, 2017
- ↑ a b The Nidwalden Museum shows the rise and fall of the legendary Schilter . In: Nidwaldner Zeitung, March 23, 2017
- ↑ After a rapid rise came the deep fall . In: Central Switzerland on Sunday , March 26, 2017
- ↑ founding statutes of 30 April 1993 in accordance shab.ch