Schweiter Technologies

Schweiter Technologies AG
legal form	Corporation
ISIN	CH0010754924
founding	1912
Seat	Horgen , Switzerland
management	Heinz Baumgartner ; ( Management ) ; Beat Siegrist ; ( Chairman of the Board )
Number of employees	4332 (December 31, 2016)
sales	CHF 1003 million (2016)
Branch	Machine industry
Website	www.schweiter.ch

Swiss factories around 1925

The Schweiter Technologies AG , based in Horgen is an international Swiss machine manufacturer. The company, which is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange , employs around 4,300 people and generated sales of CHF 1,003 million in 2016.

Field of activity

Until 2017, the group comprised the business areas “SSM Textile Machinery” and “Composites ( 3A Composites )”.

The SSM Textile Machinery division, which is changing to Rieter , specializes in the manufacture of machines for yarn processing and precision winding with a particular focus on fine yarns and fast processes. He is one of the world's leading providers of precision winding in the areas of dyeing, weaving and Nähgarnvorbereitung and in certain segments of the Filamentgarnherstellung .

Today's (2017) Schweiter core area composites ( 3A Composites ) deals with the production and marketing of semi-finished products such as B. Aluminum composite panels and core materials for sandwich constructions.

history

The company, founded in 1912, has its origins in the repair workshop run by Jean Schweiter and Heinrich Schrader in the middle of the 19th century. Schrader came to Horgen in 1850, where ten silk weavers produced fabrics on handlooms. In 1854 he had a residential and workshop building built in the "Baumgärtli" (corner of Zugerstrasse and Lindenstrasse, today the "Seniors' Meeting Center Baumgärtlihof") in order to develop and build mechanical looms for the silk industry. In 1855, together with his sons and Jean Schweiter, he constructed one of the first mechanical “Pirn” winding machines.

In 1894, Schweiter took over the construction workshop and continued to operate it as the mechanical engineering company "Jean Schweiter, Maschinenfabrik, Horgen". In 1896 the company had 25 employees. In 1906 a new large factory building was built in place of the workshop. With his invention of the horizontal spindle change in the same year, Schweiter and his company gained worldwide recognition in the textile industry.

As a result, the company grew into an international company. When Schweiter AG was founded in 1912, 195 employees and workers were employed. In 1925 the company moved into a new factory in Horgen-Oberdorf because the Baumgärtli did not have enough space.

In 1943, the four textile machinery factories Grob , Schweiter, Stäubli and Vollenweider merged to form the sales and advertising association “Die 4 von Horgen” in order to overcome the difficulties of the time and to be able to maintain their independence.

In 1973 the company went public on the SWX Swiss Exchange . In 1986 Hans Widmer , who later became Chairman of the Board of Directors, took over the majority of shares in Schweiter. In 1989, the companies Schärer (founded in 1880), Schweiter (1854) and Mettler (1868) founded SSM AG, which formed one of the three pillars of the group of companies. At the same time, the group gave itself a holding structure with the establishment of Schweiter Technologies as an umbrella company.

Various acquisitions took place between 1998 and 2015 that led to the formation of the group of companies: 1998 Satis Vacuum Group Baar, 1999. Stähle Eltex Germany and Hacoba Spultechnik Germany, 2000 Ismeca Group, 2004 Loh Group Dornach, 2005 sale of Ismeca Automation. In June 2008, Schweiter announced that it had reached an agreement with the French Essilor Group on the sale of the Satisloh division for 340 million euros. On December 1, 2009, the Canadian aluminum company Rio Tinto Alcan took over the Alcan Composites division and renamed it 3A Composites . Further purchases were in 2012 Foamalite Ltd Ireland, Giudici Italy, Ismeca Semiconductor, 2015 PNG Balsa Papua New Guinea, Polycasa Group, Plastwag SA Poland.

The Schweiter site acquired by Credit Suisse in the 1980s was sold to Realstone Fund Management in 2015 . Schweiter remained a tenant.

In July 2017, Schweiter sold the textile machinery division (SSM textile machinery division) to Rieter and in return took over the Irish company Athlone Extrusions in order to strengthen the core area of “composites”.

From 2017, 230 rental apartments will be built on the Schweiter site in Horgen-Oberdorf in addition to the listed factory buildings.

Web links

Commons : Schweiter AG - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

[1] Schweiter: Annual reports

[2] Rieter: media release of July 3, 2017

[3] SSM: Company profile

[4] Mittex, the trade journal for textile yarn and fabric production in German-speaking Europe, 5/1993: Die 4 von Horgen, over 100 years of textile machine construction

[5] Balance from May 6, 2011: Interview with Hans Widmer

[6] Horgen year Issue 2001: Maschinenfabrik Schweiter

[7] Schweiter: Milestones

[8] Cash from July 3, 2017: Textile Machine Rochade. A milestone for Schweiter and Rieter

[9] Zürichsee-Zeitung of July 13, 2017: “Quality of life in high density” is being created on the Schweiter site. The large-scale project with 230 rental apartments above the Oberdorf train station is being planned by the team of architects Galli Rudolf. Its "Homage" project is intended to combine urban flair and rural greenery