ANDRITZ annual report 2012 - ANDRITZ Vertical volute pumps

14
Into the
right
shape
Dagmar Deckstein was business correspondent for
the German daily newspaper “Süddeutsche
Zeitung” in Baden-Württemberg. The
research she conducted in the town of
Göppingen, headquarters of the press
manufacturer Schuler, in which
ANDRITZ has acquired a majority
stake, was in a way a journey into
the past — Deckstein was born in
Göppingen. For this report, she
looked into the past, but above
all at the current market position
and future perspectives for
Schuler, and spoke with Schuler
CEO Stefan Klebert.
W
hether for mudguards or car
doors, sheet steel castings
for washing machines or
kitchen sinks, railway wheels
or turbine blades for aircraft
engines, drinks cans or euro
coins – a variety of industries
first have to mould metal or other materials into the right
shape as part of their production process. One could
use large presses produced by Schuler, for example,
that process metal at a pressure of up to 50,000 tons.
Today, in total an estimated 20,000 Schuler presses
are installed around the world.
Louis Schuler opened his metalworking shop in
Göppingen, Germany, back in 1839. In 1852 he began
producing the first sheet metal processing machines
and in 1895 he exported his first coin minting press to
China. However, the breakthrough did not come until
industrial mass production began in the automotive
industry in 1924, when Schuler supplied the first car
body press to car manufacturer Opel in Rüsselsheim,
Germany. This is more or less the history of countless
companies, which are present-day world leaders in the
German-speaking world.
In long-standing studies, management consultant Hermann
Simon from Bonn identified 1,533 companies
as hidden champions. Schuler is one of these hidden
champions, which are well known to their industrial clients
but hardly at all to consumers. 174 years after the
company was founded, Schuler has risen to become
an international group that currently employs about
5,500 employees in 40 countries and one of the
world’s leading suppliers for machinery, plants,
tools, processing know-how, and services to the metal
processing industry.
In addition to virtually all car manufacturers and their
suppliers, its customers include companies operating
in the household appliance, metal forging, energy
and electrical industries. The company’s present size
is due not least to the spectacular acquisition of its
long-standing competitor Müller-Weingarten. For
a long time, machine builders puzzled over which
of the two German heavyweights would buy up the
other. Robert Schuler-Voith, great-great-grandson
of the founder Louis Schuler, was finally successful.
Müller-Weingarten is a traditional company from Weingarten
in the German region of Upper-Swabia and was
founded in 1866. It has been merged with Schuler,
along with its 2,300 employees and sales of 336 million
euros.
Things have been on the up ever since. After recording
sales of just under 960 million euros in the 2010/2011
business year and an EBITDA margin of 8.8%, the
company led by CEO Stefan Klebert – whose contract
was extended in November 2012 until 2018 – achieved
sales of 1.2 billion euros and an EBITDA margin
of 9.6% in the 2011/2012 business year.
But despite the recent two years of high growth, things
are not entirely rosy, even for Schuler – especially given
the continuing uncertainty caused by the European
debt crisis and the worldwide slowdown in the automotive
sector that is already setting in. After all, the