AFG Arbonia-Forster-Holding AG Amriswilerstrasse 50

Yesterday...
The origins of AFG date back to 1874,
when F. J. Forster started a coppersmith’s
workshop in the old town of Arbon.
In 1908 a new building was erected in
Romanshorn Street in Arbon. In the winter
of 2007/2008 a number of AFG employees
were relocated from this old building
to the AFG Corporate Center.
100 years after they were fi rst occupied,
2008/2009 will see the buildings in Zelg
Street and Romanshorn Street knocked
down. In 1904 the fi rst oven top parts
were built, in 1915 the fi rst steel pipe
radiators and in 1930 the fi rst profi le steel
pipes. The takeovers by Arbonia (1958)
and Forster (1973) created the basis for
the new company name of the Arbonia
Forster Group in 1974 The origins of this
28 | AFG Corporate Center
A LOOK TO THE FUTURE
AFG yesterday,
today and tomorrow
The history of AFG is a long and successful one. What began in 1874 as a
coppersmith’s workshop in the small town of Arbon, is today one of the most
prominent companies in Switzerland with over 6,200 employees worldwide.
industrial group is even more unusual because
for decades the company founder,
Jakob Züllig, (deceased 1999) and his
wife, Trudi Züllig-Grauer, owned and ran
the Arbon town butcher’s shop. They
made a major contribution to the economical
development of the region, a region
which is still fl ourishing today.
With the planned stock market fl otation
in mind, 1987 saw the founding of the
AFG Arbonia Forster Holding AG. However
the fl otation had to be postponed following
the crash of the stock market in the
fall of 1987. The fl otation fi nally took place
though in the fall of 1988 when the AFG
was quoted on the Swiss stock market,
SWX. The company began to expand more
and more. Following the political turnaround
and fall of the Iron Curtain, a large
piece of land was acquired in 1991 in the
town of Riesa, Saxony (near Dresden) on
which the German subsidiary of AFG,
Arbonia-Forster Riesa GmbH, established
its headquarters. The company opened
further subsidiaries in a number of European
countries with the aim of increasing
exports. With the two divisions, Heating
Technology and Sanitary Equipment and
Steel Technology, the market was consolidated
by 2004.
Today...
Five years after Jakob Züllig died, in 2003,
the joint heirs sold their majority share to
Dr. Edgar Oehler. This led the way for the
second phase of the AFG expansion. In
the last 4 years the company’s turnover
has more than doubled. In addition to