Vossloh

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Vossloh Aktiengesellschaft

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN DE0007667107
founding 1888
Seat Werdohl , GermanyGermanyGermany 
management
  • Oliver Schuster, CEO
Number of employees 3,786
sales 916.4 million euros
Branch Railway technology
Website www.vossloh.com
As of December 31, 2019

The Vossloh AG , headquartered in the Sauerland Werdohl is a global leader in the field of railway infrastructure. The company offers rail fastening systems, concrete sleepers , switch systems and services related to rails and switches.

history

Four-axle DE 18 locomotive in Hannover Hbf

Established until the 1930s

The group is named after Eduard Vossloh, who was born on November 29, 1848 in Werdohl , Westphalia . He learned the craft of blacksmithing and in 1883 received the first order from the Royal Prussian Railway to manufacture spring washers for rail fastening. On July 11, 1888, the Eduard Vossloh company from Werdohl was entered in the company register at the Altena District Court . The forge was expanded and, in addition to spring washers, other hardware and curtain rods were put into production. In 1899 the company founder Eduard Vossloh died and the company was transferred to the founder's five children by will and continued operation as a general partnership , of whom the sons Eduard jr. and Wilhelm initially ran the business. In 1909 it was converted into a limited partnership ; Daughter Hermione became a limited partner. Werdohl is still the headquarters of Vossloh AG and Vossloh Fastening Systems GmbH (Core Components division).

At the beginning of the First World War , Vossloh KG already had 250 employees. In 1919, the company turned away from forging activities and instead manufactured wires and tubes, and a rolling mill was built for this purpose. In the 1920s, several product divisions were spun off from the company as individual companies and henceforth functioned as sales companies - for example, the decoration goods company Appel & Pfannschmidt in Kassel , the Hansa Metallwarengesellschaft Thiessen & Hager in Hamburg , the Metag in Cologne , etc. a. also in Holland and Spain. At that time, the product range comprised decorative goods and sockets for Edison light bulbs . In 1927 the engineer Karl Vossloh succeeded in patenting the "high tension spring ring".

The 1930s, World War II, and the post-war period

In 1930 the company was centralized and Vossloh-Werke GmbH was established. However, the trading companies retained their independence as subsidiaries . In 1937 the company expanded to a large extent in Lüdenscheid . During the Second World War , numerous offices and warehouses in the Werdohl plant were destroyed in 1945; production came to a standstill. Due to the loss of the German eastern territories, several company sites were opened B. in Breslau and Königsberg were separated and from then on no longer belonged to the company.

In 1946 the military government gave their consent to resume production. The Vossloh plant in Lüdenscheid was the only manufacturer in Europe to produce sockets for fluorescent tubes . Fluorescent tubes and rail fastenings were among the most lucrative company segments at that time. Vossloh expanded its workforce to 500 at that time. 1958 Hans Vossloh became managing director of the GmbH.

The 1960s: development of the tension clamp

Rail, held on the threshold with tension clamps

In August 1962, the first foreign production facility, Vossloh SpA , Sarsina , was opened. At the beginning of the 1960s, Vossloh had 1,300 employees, and another 500 worked in affiliated companies. A new plastics processing plant was built in Lüdenscheid.

A decisive turning point was the year 1967. Hermann Meier developed the elastic tension clamp for rail fastening. Vossloh received the license to manufacture; Production began in the same year. In the following year, the Federal Railroad built the first test route with the new rail fastenings. This type of rail fastening is now a worldwide reference for all applications in rail operations.

The 1980s and 1990s: expansion and IPO

The international expansion progressed: In 1982 a sales company for the lamp holder sector was founded in Singapore. Further expansions abroad followed; After long negotiations, Vossloh acquired Schwabe GmbH , Urbach , with holdings in France and Spain. In the course of this, the first Vossloh subsidiary for the lighting industry was established in the United States: Vossloh Inc. , Pittsburgh .

In 1989 the decision was made to convert Vossloh-Werke GmbH into a stock corporation. The group of companies was restructured by outsourcing the operative business from the stock corporation. The stock corporation assumed the function of a financial and management holding company as the parent company of the three divisions Vossloh-Werke GmbH , Werdohl (railway superstructure and spring washers), Vossloh-Schwabe GmbH , Urbach (ballasts, lamp sockets, lighting components ) and Hansa Metallwarengesellschaft mbH Thiessen & Hager (decorative line and Sun protection products).

Today's listed company was established in 1990. Vossloh AG went public on June 13, 1990 at an issue price of DM 420; the capital stock of 25 million DM was divided into 500,000 shares. Today, Heinz Hermann Thiele is the largest shareholder in Vossloh AG . The Vossloh family community largely parted with their share package in 2013.

In the 1990s, the company expanded again, creating a location in Thailand ( Vossloh-Schwabe Thailand Ltd. ) as well as subsidiaries in Romania, India and Tunisia. The Vossloh AG bought in 1995 with the W. Hegenscheidt GmbH and Hoesch Maschinenfabrik GmbH Germany two companies for the production of special machines for the wheel set of rail vehicles. In 1997, Vossloh AG shares were included in the MDAX, where they remained until March 2013, after which they were listed in the SDAX until June 24, 2019 . In the following year, Vossloh System-Technik GmbH took over MAN Systemelektronik in Karlsfeld and thus expanded the product range to include passenger information systems . Together with VOEST-Alpine Stahl AG (VA Stahl), Vossloh acquired the majority of the shares in the Austrian VAE, world market leader for railway switches . In the same year, the company also acquired Siemens Rail Vehicle Technology (SFT) in Kiel ; Until the sale of this part of the company in August 2019, the company subsidiary Vossloh Locomotives built diesel locomotives with diesel-hydraulic and diesel-electric drives in the former MaK ( Maschinenbau Kiel ) plant.

Vossloh after the turn of the millennium

In 2000 Vossloh concluded an alliance with the British Angel Trains Limited and founded Locomotion Capital Ltd. (ten percent stake) based in London and Locomotion Service GmbH (90 percent stake) based in Kiel. In 2002, the company sold its lighting technology division Vossloh-Schwabe to the Japanese Panasonic group and sold its 45.3 percent stake in the Austrian switch manufacturer VAE AG for a purchase price of EUR 140.5 million. In the same year it acquired the French switch manufacturer Cogifer and can therefore position itself as a system provider and service provider for rail infrastructure. At the Alsatian location in Reichshoffen, where the Société de Construction et d'Embranchements Industriels (SEI) was founded in 1904 for the manufacture of railway switches, one of the most important French switch plants and the Vossloh Cogifer technology center are still located today.

In addition, in 2002 Vossloh AG signed a purchase agreement to acquire the Kiepe-Elektrik Group, Düsseldorf, and Skamo, the Polish market leader for rail fasteners. With these acquisitions, Vossloh was able to expand its range of products and services in traffic technology. In 2004 the company acquired Alstom's diesel locomotive plant in Valencia , Spain; diesel-electric locomotives will be built here from now on . The plants in Kiel and Valencia are independent companies. In the years that followed, Vossloh built up additional pillars through the establishment of subsidiaries and acquisitions, including in Turkey, Australia, India and the North American market. As part of the strategic realignment towards a transport technology group, the company subsidiary Vossloh Information Technologies GmbH was sold to Funkwerk AG in 2007 .

At the beginning of 2010, Vossloh bought three companies from the track construction and maintenance sectors (the companies of the Stahlberg-Roensch Group active in the field of rail services, LOG Logistikgesellschaft Gleisbau mbH and ISB Maintenance Systems Bahn GmbH from the Contrack Group) and founded a new business unit called “Vossloh Rail Services ". (today the Lifecycle Solutions division). The acquisition comprised seven German locations that specialize primarily in complex solutions for logistics and welding as well as preventive maintenance of rails.

The group decided to focus on rail infrastructure. As a result, the Transportation division was no longer part of the Vossloh Group's core business at the end of 2014.

In November 2015, the sale of the Spanish subsidiary Vossloh Rail Vehicles, formerly Macosa or, until 2005, Alstom, headquartered in Valencia, to the Swiss Stadler Rail was announced. After the sale agreement was signed in December 2016, the Electrical Systems division was sold to Knorr-Bremse AG at the end of January 2017 .

The latest Vossloh activity is Vossloh Tie Technologies (Core Components division). The contract to acquire Rocla Concrete Tie, Inc. , headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado, was signed on December 5, 2016 with the previous owner Altus Capital Partners II . The acquisition of Rocla was completed in early 2017. The North American company has been supplying concrete sleepers to customers in the focus market of the USA since 1986 .

After the Spanish part of rail vehicle construction had already been sold in 2015 and corresponding sales negotiations had been taking place with the current buyer since at least the beginning of 2018, Vossloh also sold the last remaining part of the Transportation division, in particular the deficit production of diesel-hydraulic locomotives previously acquired by Siemens, in August 2019 for use as a shunting vehicle, at the Kiel location, at the world's largest railway technology group China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) , Beijing / China.

The corporate structure

The Vossloh Group is made up of three business areas: The core rail infrastructure business is served by the three business areas Core Components, Customized Modules and Lifecycle Solutions. They divide the Vossloh offer for the infrastructure into the categories (series) products, project business and service. The fourth division, Transportation, was sold to the Chinese rail vehicle manufacturer CRRC in August 2019 .

Core Components

The Core Components division includes the Vossloh Fastening Systems and Vossloh Tie Technologies business units . Both manufacture products such as rail fastening systems and concrete sleepers, which are required in large numbers for projects in the rail infrastructure.

Vossloh Fastening Systems, headquartered in Werdohl and with further production facilities in Poland, the USA, China and Russia, has been offering rail fastening systems for over 120 years. The elastic systems, screwed on and maintenance-free, are suitable for all load profiles and applications: ballast track, slab track , main and control line, high speed, heavy goods traffic and local rail traffic. The products are used in over 65 countries. Around 50 million tension clamps leave the Vossloh production sites every year.

The Vossloh Tie Technologies business unit (formerly Rocla Concrete Tie, Inc. ) is the leading manufacturer of concrete sleepers in North America. Beyond that

  • pre-tensioned turnout sleepers,
  • Concrete elements for the slab track and level crossing systems as well
  • LVT solutions for efficient vibration protection

Produced in six own plants in the USA as well as in a production facility in Mexico.

Customized modules

In the Customized Modules division, all of the Group's services relating to the manufacture, installation and maintenance of customized infrastructure modules are bundled. The Switch Systems division ( Vossloh Cogifer ) belongs to the division .

Vossloh Cogifer is one of the world market leaders in the manufacture and worldwide sale of switches and their maintenance. For more than a century, Vossloh Cogifer has been equipping rail networks with complete turnout systems and the associated components. These include

  • Signaling technology,
  • Switch actuation and locking devices as well as
  • Track monitoring systems,
  • Manganese centerpieces and
  • specially forged switch tongues.

The application spectrum ranges from standard, high-speed and special (heavy-duty) turnouts according to all international standards to urban solutions. The business area, with its headquarters in Rueil Malmaison, France, was created in 2002 through the acquisition of the French Cogifer Group by Vossloh. At Vossloh Cogifer include worldwide through 30 production facilities in about 22 countries, including France, the USA, Sweden, Australia, Luxembourg, Poland and the UK.

Lifecycle Solutions

The Lifecycle Solutions division concentrates with the Rail Services division on specialized services for the maintenance of rails and points. This includes welding and the logistics of long rails and complete switch modules, the maintenance and preventive care of rails and switches or the reconditioning and return of old rails. The services extend to life cycle management of entire route sections.

The subsidiary was formed in 2010 with the acquisition of Stahlberg Roensch, Seevetal , LOG Logistikgesellschaft Gleisbau mbH and ISB Maintenance Systems Bahn GmbH from the Contrack Group, Hanover. The services of the Lifecycle Solutions division complement the product range of Core Components and Customized Modules.

In addition to the company headquarters in Hamburg-Harburg, the business area has various locations throughout Germany and internationally.

Customers are primarily rail manufacturers and rail network operators. In Germany, Vossloh Rail Services is already a leading provider of rail services. With high-speed grinding ( high-speed grinding ) a preventive grinding process was developed to significantly improve rail life (minimum removal, troubleshooting in the batch), while more economical, (h no road closures due to high operating speed to 80 km /, less artificial wear) than conventional methods . The combination of a rigid sanding bar and non-powered peripheral sanding tools at an angle to the direction of travel has been proven to ensure a multi-faceted, noise-reduced finish. Vossloh is also the first private company to provide maintenance services on the high-speed lines in China.

Vossloh Transportation (until August 2019)

View of the factory in Kiel-Suchsdorf

The Transportation division offered both diesel locomotives for shunting and mainline services as well as all the necessary services relating to the maintenance and repair of locomotives.

Vossloh Locomotives was one of the leading manufacturers of diesel locomotives for shunting and mainline operations in Europe . The business area belonged to the Vossloh Group from 1998. The head office was in Kiel . Service locations were in Germany, France and Italy. The Europe-wide service network also included partner workshops and cooperations such as B. in Sweden. With a total investment of around forty million euros, a new 18,000 square meter production facility was built in Kiel-Suchsdorf in 2017.

At the Kiel site, Vossloh Locomotives developed and produced state-of-the-art diesel-electric and diesel-hydraulic center-cab locomotives that are equipped with environmentally friendly technologies and are approved for flexible cross-border operation in many European countries. In addition to three diesel-hydraulic models ( G 6 , G 12 , G 18 ), the standard portfolio also included two diesel-electric models ( DE 12 , DE 18 ). The popular G 6 three-axle shunting locomotive was the first model in the modular family of locomotives. In 2016, Vossloh Locomotives achieved a record high in incoming orders: The decisive factor was the large order it won in France for the delivery of 44 DE 18 diesel-electric locomotives.

In August 2019, Vossloh Locomotives was sold to the Chinese rail vehicle manufacturer CRRC .

Business activity

The rail technology company Vossloh focuses on products and services for rail infrastructure. The company's core business is provided by three business areas - Core Components , Customized Modules and Lifecycle Solutions .

Customers are usually public and private railway companies, network operators as well as regional and municipal transport companies.

Vossloh is one of the world market leaders in rail fastenings and switch systems; Vossloh is North America's leading manufacturer of concrete sleepers; When it comes to preventive rail maintenance, Vossloh has a technology that is unique in the world for high-speed grinding, known as high-speed grinding.

Vossloh currently has three business units. The fourth division, Transportation , was sold to the Chinese rail vehicle manufacturer CRRC in August 2019 . It comprised the development and manufacture of diesel locomotives and offered all the necessary services for the maintenance of locomotives.

The individual companies are coordinated centrally by Vossloh AG as a holding company and operate jointly under the Vossloh brand. Vossloh's important European production sites are in Germany, France, Luxembourg, Poland and Scandinavia. The group also has subsidiaries in Asia, America, Australia and Russia. Vossloh has had a production facility in Kunshan , China, since 2007 .

Selection of current orders and significant developments
  • Less rail noise in China's metropolises: The 336 Duo fastening system is already in use on several metro lines in China, including a. in the switches of Beijing Line 7 and on critical sections of Line 2 of the Suzhou Subway . Specially developed for urban transport in China, it is compatible with local track solutions and has good damping properties. The vibration level on the tunnel wall could be reduced by -5.65 dB (A) after changing the fastening systems. On a 7.7 km long section of the Guangzhou Metro , the noise level was reduced by 4 dB (A) by grinding rails .
  • The Core Components division won orders in China, Italy and Saudi Arabia in 2016. The high-speed fastening systems worth around 50 million Ero will be delivered in two tranches in 2017: On the one hand, the route from Qingdao City to Ji Nan City, a section of the approximately 700 km long connection from Qingdao on the east coast to Taiyuan, southwest of Beijing equipped. Driving speeds of up to 250 km / h are planned on the route. In addition, in Ji Nan the line will be connected to the north-south connection from Beijing to Shanghai.
  • On July 2, 2017, the 302 km long high-speed line between Tours and Bordeaux went into operation. It is designed for operating speeds of up to 320 km / h. Vossloh meets the requirements of higher traffic loads in the ballast superstructure, which is designed for operating speeds of more than 300 km / h. For this reason, the French track builders TSO and ETF concluded a contract with Vossloh in 2012 for fully equipped switch systems and rail fastening systems. Vossloh has been supplying switches, crossings, signal products and fastening systems since October 2014.
  • The Swedish rail network operator Trafikverket has been planning and purchasing all turnout deliveries centrally since 2013. Thanks to the large-scale turnout logistics, the track construction work could be significantly shortened.
  • Since October 3, 2016, the HSG grinding train in the Gotthard Base Tunnel has been regularly providing preventive rail maintenance. Since signing the framework agreement, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) have also been using High Speed ​​Grinding (HSG) technology for preventive rail maintenance. Today, the procedure is in use on almost all main lines of DB Netz AG without shutdown breaks and is an integral part of the preventive maintenance strategy of Deutsche Bahn. The procedure is also established in China and is used on various “Passenger Dedicated Lines”, high-speed routes with speeds of up to 380 km / h. In 2013, Vossloh was the first service provider allowed to provide services on Chinese high-speed lines. HSG assignments also take place in five other European and one Asian countries.

Web links

Commons : Vossloh  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Vossloh AG: New appointments to the Executive Board in the Vossloh Group. Retrieved October 1, 2019 .
  2. ^ Vossloh AG: Supervisory Board. In: Vossloh.com. Retrieved April 6, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Annual Report 2019. In: vossloh.com. Retrieved May 27, 2020 .
  4. ↑ voestalpine acquires the Vossloh shares in VAE AG and becomes the majority owner of the world's leading switch manufacturer Report on the Austrian stock exchange portal aktie.at on July 16, 2002, accessed on July 12, 2020
  5. ^ Vossloh locomotive business above plan . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 3/2003, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 109
  6. ↑ Christian Schnell: " Vossloh scores on the stock market with a lot of solidity ". Handelsblatt dated March 6, 2010
  7. ↑ Vossloh.com history
  8. ↑ Transportation division is to be sold. Eurailpress, December 1, 2014, accessed June 14, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Stadler Rail buys Spanish locomotive business from Vossloh. Blick.ch, November 4, 2015, accessed on November 7, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Vossloh Kiepe becomes Kiepe Electric. Eurailpress, May 10, 2017, accessed June 22, 2017 .
  11. ^ Knorr-Bremse complete purchase of Vossloh Electrical Systems. Railway Gazette International, January 31, 2017, accessed June 14, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Acquisition of Rocla Concrete Tie completed. Eurailpress, January 5, 2017, accessed June 22, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Insights into the new world of locomotive builders Report on the homepage of the daily newspaper Kieler Nachrichten of March 9, 2018, accessed on August 31, 2019
  14. ↑ A German company is China's new gateway to Europe Report of the daily newspaper DIE WELT on August 31, 2019, accessed on August 31, 2019
  15. ↑ Company structure. Vossloh AG, accessed on June 14, 2017 .
  16. ↑ VCO company profile ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , www.vossloh-cogifer.com, accessed on March 15, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vossloh-cogifer.com
  17. ↑ Vossloh acquires rail services business ( Memento from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ↑ VRS company profile ( Memento of the original from March 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed March 15, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.vossloh-rail-services.com
  19. ↑ Konstantin von Diest, Rainer Meyer: Continuous rail maintenance : Turnout processing in the timetable . 12/2016 edition. Railway engineer, S. 46-50 .
  20. ↑ Markus Hecht; Sascha Nesterow: Report No. 02/2014 Study on noise reduction in rail freight transport . Ed .: Technical University Berlin; Institute for Land and Sea Transport; Specialized in rail vehicles. S. 27 .
  21. ↑ Vossloh Locomotives with a new Sweden subsidiary. Eurailpress, October 7, 2015, accessed June 14, 2017 .
  22. ↑ VLO company profile, www.vossloh-locomotives.com, accessed on March 15, 2013
  23. ↑ Akiem orders 44 locomotives. Eurailpress, August 1, 2016, accessed June 14, 2017 .
  24. ↑ Vossloh signs contract to sell the Locomotives business unit. vossloh.com, August 26, 2019, accessed August 26, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Timo Jann: Chinese buy Vossloh · State-owned company CRRC takes over locomotive manufacturer from Kiel . In: Daily port report of April 30, 2020, p. 2
  26. ↑ cm: Transportation is to be sold. Eurailpress, December 1, 2014, accessed June 22, 2017 .
  27. ^ Nicole Wiethoff, Sebastian Meyer: More rail, more noise? Ed .: Local traffic. 07/08 2016 edition. 34th year, no. 07/08 2016 . Local traffic, p. 20-23 .
  28. ↑ Eurialpress: China: Major order for Vossloh Core Components. July 19, 2016. Retrieved June 14, 2017 .
  29. ^ Saudi Arabia: HGV route will not come until 2018. Eurailpress, June 9, 2016, accessed on June 14, 2017 .
  30. ↑ Freddy Sudol, Mohammed Maatallaoui: Railway Gazette International . No. 10/2013 . Railway Gazette International, S. 59-60 .
  31. ↑ Highest speeds on gravel track . No. 11 + 12/2013 . Privatbahn Magazin, p. 40 + 41 .
  32. ^ LGV française: d'importants contrats confortent le leadership. Edition n ° 105. La lettre Ferroviaire (French), March 18, 2014, p. 5-9 .
  33. ↑ Vossloh's latest pointe work . No. 14 . Railvolution, August 2014, p. 92 .
  34. ↑ Marcel Taubert: Lecture "Ten Years of High Speed ​​Grinding". Vossloh AG, May 31, 2017, accessed June 1, 2017 .
  35. ↑ High speed grinding expands in China. Railway Gazette International, June 1, 2017, accessed June 14, 2017 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 15 ′ 35.8 "  N , 7 ° 45 ′ 31.8"  E