Sustainably Successful Since 1834

Acquisition of C.L. Engenharia in Brazil, a specialist in tower field service: with this acquisition, Sulzer enhances the competitiveness of its tower field service activities in Brazil and further expands its presence in the emerging markets.

Sulzer Metco complements its portfolio for thin-film coatings with the acquisition of Bekaert’s diamond-like carbon coatings.

Sulzer expands its presence in the emerging markets with the opening of a new, state-of-the-art production facility in China.

Click to zoom

Definition of the three core values of Sulzer: Customer Partnership, Operational Excellence and Committed People. They are the principles and standards upon which Sulzer builds its future.

Sulzer Chemtech acquires several tower field service companies in Australia, Thailand, India, and Germany.

Sulzer Turbo Services expands its business in South America with the acquisition of the turbomachinery service-provider Capime.

Sulzer initiates a health and safety awareness program to ensure adequate safetybehavior on all levels. The corporation has set the long-term goal of reducing the number of occupational accidents and illnesses to zero. In the midterm, Sulzer aims to reduce the 2006 accident frequency rate by half by 2010.

In December, the corporation acquires Mixpac, Werfo, and Mold. The companies are integrated into the new business unit Sulzer Mixpac Systems in 2007.

Shortly before year-end, the Hexis fuel-cell activities are sold to a Swiss foundation.

In the course of the year, Sulzer strengthens the market positions of its divisions: Sulzer Metco acquires the Ambeon division of Westaim in Canada as well as OSU Machine Construction in Germany. Sulzer Pumps takes over the Johnston, Crown, and Paco pump activities from Precision Castparts Corp. (PCC), located in Houston, Texas, USA, and in Wuxi, China.

Sulzer launches a program for corporate culture to achieve operational excellence in all units.

Sulzer Infra is divested to Groupe Fabricom.

The Sulzer Medica spin-off is finalized on July 10, 2001.

Click to zoom

Sulzer Textile is sold to the Promatech Group, Italy.

In September, plans are made public that Sulzer wants to divest several divisions, and to reintegrate Sulzer Medica. However, the reintegration plan is cancelled a few weeks later; the industrial and the medical technology parts are to develop more independently.

In December, Sulzer Turbo is sold to the MAN group.

Sulzer Pumps strengthens its position on the Chinese market by founding a joint venture with Dalian Pumps.

Click to zoom

Sulzer sells the Sulzer Hydro water turbine and pump business to the technology company VA Tech (Austria).

Sulzer Medica consolidates biotechnology activities in the new division, Sulzer Biologics, headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA.

The engineering sector of SLM (Swiss Locomotive and Machine Factory) is sold to Adtranz Switzerland.

In the summer, Sulzer Medica goes public. The corporation decides to pursue a dual strategy: medical technology and industrial business.

Sulzer Thermtec (power plant valves and apparatuses) is sold to the British company IMI.

The inauguration of the Sulzer Orthopedics Technology Center takes place on May 21 in Oberwinterthur.

The flourishing-but-too-small Sulzer Chemtech environmental technology business is sold to Austrian Energy and Environment.

ELMA Electronic becomes independent and goes public in the same year.

Non-Swiss shareholders are permitted for the first time.

Sulzer stops production at the Winterthur factory. Its various departments are reassigned to the product divisions (“verticalization”) in an attempt to streamline the product areas. The historical Winterthur site is cleared, and work started on reutilization plans. For the first time in Sulzer’s history, the number of Sulzer employees abroad exceeds the number in Switzerland. The diesel engine business is divested to the new Sulzer diesel company, in which Sulzer holds only a minor participation. 

Corporate reorganization measures lead to restructuring of the product portfolio. The medical technology business expands intensively (including acquisition of the Intermedics Group, USA). A hostile takeover bid is averted. 

Sulzer takes control of Plasma Technik AG with four facilities in Switzerland, USA, England, and Singapore. The materials and surface technology business is an excellent fit for Sulzer and in line with its research and development activities.

Click to zoom

Sulzer’s 150th jubilee celebrations coincide with extensive restructuring activities. For the first time in many years, the corporation records a net loss and does not pay out a dividend to its stockholders. 

Sulzer acquires the Rüti machine factory; a strong expansion of the weaving-machinery business follows. 

The oil crisis of the 1970s leads to an end of the economic boom which had lasted for about twenty five years. The strong Swiss franc has a negative effect on Sulzer’s exports. To master the resulting difficulties, the Sulzer Corporation is reorganized into a presidential system with responsibilities on a decentralized basis. 

Material technology activities are intensified and form the basis for medical technology products. The fundamental change from a machine-building company to a technology corporation starts to become apparent.

Sulzer acquires a 53 percent share in Escher Wyss AG, Zurich, and takes over the company completely in 1969. As a result of this integration, employee figures rise to more than thirty thousand. 

Sulzer acquires the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Factory (SLM), Winterthur.

Click to zoom

Beginning of the boom in the large diesel-engine business.

After the Second World War, a new growth phase starts that brings great prosperity and strong expansion of business activities abroad. In order to meet steadily rising production demands, increasing numbers of employees are recruited, especially from southern Europe. 

Due to ongoing construction activities at the Oberwinterthur site, manufacturing facilities are tripled within twenty-five years. The product range expands, particularly in the boiler-construction and textile machinery.

Construction of housing increases steadily in Winterthur suburbs and surrounding regions.

Employees benefit from better working conditions and social welfare. Female labor is promoted for light factory work.

Due to the global slump, production declines to less than 40 percent and many employees lose their jobs.

The family firm is transformed into three joint-stock companies, one of which is the holding company.

Sulzer starts to build compressors.

Cooperation with Rudolf Diesel leads to the development of the first Sulzer diesel engine. This engine gradually replaces the then-dominant steam engine.

Click to zoom

The first workers’ council in Switzerland is founded. 

Sulzer opens a subsidiary in Ludwigshafen on the Rhine (Germany). It flourishes, as does the parent company in Winterthur.

During the years following, sales offices are opened in Milan, Paris, Cairo, London, Moscow, Bucharest, and, in 1914, in Kobe (Japan).

A new growth period begins: Sulzer experiences international success especially with steam engines. Employee figures continued to rise, reaching three thousand by the turn of the century.  

Click to zoom

Sulzer starts to build refrigerating machines.

During the initial phase of Winterthur’s first large-scale social housing plan, twenty-four low-cost employee rental apartments are constructed in Veltheim, Winterthur. The “Society for Affordable Housing Construction” soon adds further apartment buildings and the first private homes for employees in other parts of Winterthur. (In 1989, the city of Winterthur receives the Wakker Prize—an award for cultural heritage—for its outstandingly maintained employee housing estates). 

To ensure an adequate supply of qualified young craftsmen, Sulzer opens the first in-house training school in Switzerland, including an apprentice workshop. 

Sulzer enjoys great successes at the World Exhibition in Paris and six years later in Vienna. 

For the first time in its history, Sulzer employs over one thousand workers.

Extensive building activities are carried out at the original site in Winterthur.

The first sales office abroad is opened in Turin, Italy. 

The first trading-company agreement between the Sulzer brothers is made, whereby company activities are divided into divisions. Entrepreneurial thinking and the willingness to take a risk lead to the introduction of new products (such as steam engines and, later, steamboats) with more efficient industrial production methods. 

Click to zoom

A “Sickness-Benefit Association for Factory Workers” is founded. This is the first step towards a health insurance plan for the company. 

A new foundry is constructed, and the original building becomes a machine shop. 

The first steam engine installed in Winterthur creates a sensation.

Click to zoom

Still largely a workshop establishment, the business then employs forty journeymen, laborers, and apprentices, some of whom receive room and board with the family. Though patriarchal in accordance with the times, the company takes the first stepstowards a division of labor. 

Through an exchange with the city of Winterthur, Johann Jakob Sulzer-Neuffert acquires a 5000 m2 site on Zürcherstrasse, and lays the foundation stone of “Sulzer Brothers Foundry, Winterthur”, known today as “the 1834 building”. His two sons, Johann Jakob and Salomon, start producing cast iron. They also manufacture firefighting and other pumps as well as textile machinery and later set up a heating installation business. 

Click to zoom