HUBER+SUHNER today

Faced by ever-stiffer competition – especially in the tight Swiss single market – the two traditional family-owned companies Aktiengesellschaft R.+E. Huber and Suhner & Co. AG merged in 1969. The former competitors became partners, entering into a marriage of convenience” under the name of HUBER+SUHNER AG. Several years of organisational and site-related restructuring followed, as well as a systematic realignment of the range of products. The “Cable and Cable Systems” product groups plus Telecommunications” are promoted at the expense of traditional rubber and plastic articles with weak exports and earnings. In the course of this restructuring, the “Sucoflor” flooring business was sold to Forbo AG in Giubiasco.

By skilfully exploiting the synergies generated by the merger, the newly founded company developed continuously over the following years. Special emphasis was placed on establishing an international market presence. In 1974, a subsidiary was set up in Australia, and two years later HUBER+ SUHNER AG was being represented in 28 countries around the globe. Research and development activities were consolidated.

After years of market development by representatives in the USA, the first marketing subsidiary was founded in Boston. Two years later, HUBER+SUHNER AG acquired the Champlain Cable Corporation in Winooski (Vermont) with its workforce of about 250.

With the development of heatshrinkable, chemically or electronically cross-linked plastic components and tubing for energy distribution and electronics, the company in 1978, set new priorities in materials engineering in Herisau. Another important innovation followed in the late eighties: In its factory in Pfäffikon, HUBER+ SUHNER AG invested substantial funds in the still recent technology of carbon fibre-reinforced plastics processing.

In the early nineties, global market presence was continuously intensified: Subsidiaries were set up in France, Hong Kong and Singapore. In general, increasing attention was paid to countries in East Asia.

In January 1996, the Mageba SA company in Bülach, Switzerland joined the HUBER+ SUHNER Group. It was one of the world’s leading manufacturers of bridge bearing-systems. In the same year, HUBER+ SUHNER GmbH was founded in Bad Salzdetfurth, Germany, improving the Group’s access to worldwide mobile radio markets. In order to ensure the long-term viability of the subsidiary Winterhalter+ Fenner AG, a wholesaler of electrical equipment, was sold to an electrical engineering group with European activities in August 1996. This opened up additional channels for the distribution of HUBER+SUHNER AG speciality products, supporting the Group’s internationalisation efforts.

Careful exploitation of the synergies existing between the available technologies enabled new market-leading products to be developed. By the end of 1996, products for the globally expanding telecommunications sector already accounted for over half of total turnover.

Two years later, additional efforts were made to intensify the Group’s international presence. InEurope, the long-time Swedish representative was successfully transformed into an independent Group company.

In the USA, yet another production site was built, this time in Gilbert, Arizona. In China, a sales office was set up in Shanghai, and a manufacturing site constructed in Shenzhen (South China). In addition, to develop the South American markets, another subsidiary was founded in Brazil.

The year 1999 was marked by restructuring. These measures included the complete integration of Henry Berchtold AG, Kollbrunn, into the Materials Technology unit of Pfäffikon. The company which was purchased in 1987 was active in the field of spinning cotts production. In the former Kollbrunn factory, a fibre optic production site with 80 employees was set up in 2000, and in Goldach a factory for assembling mobile radio antennas one year later.

The Group’s global presence was intensified by the founding of sales companies in the Netherlands and the USA. In Daventry, England, HUBER+ SUHNER AG built a new factory for assembling railway cables and cable systems.

Fiscal 2000 was marked by an extraordinary influx of orders never encountered before during the Group’s entire history. As of 1st April 2001, the Group withdrew from the fiercely contested heat-shrink technology market, and sold the unit. Mageba SA, acquired in 1996, was also sold as of 1st April 2001. In the same month, HUBER+SUHNER AG acquired the Danish company Crimp A/S in Allerød, which had been marketing the telecommunications products ofHUBER+SUHNER AG since 1970.

To meet the increase in future demand for carbon-fibre-reinforced plastics, HUBER+SUHNER AG purchased the German company AIK (AEG Isolier- und Kunststoff GmbH) in Kassel in the spring of 2001. It is now integrated in the factory in Pfäffikon.

The decline in the global economy and especially in the telecommunications industry had a powerful impact on HUBER+SUHNER in the second half of 2001. For the first time ever in the history of the company, jobs had to be eliminated inside and outside Switzerland. As part of a portfolio streamlining programme, production of rubber articles and mouldings in the Polymer Systems division, environmental engineering activities and filter manufacture for telecommunications applications were discontinued.

The leadership troika appointed in 2000 as Chief Executive Committee (CEC) was replaced with effect from 1May 2002 by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In addition, the organisation was given a simplified internal structure comprising two business sectors: “Mobile Communications + Electronics” and “Wired Solutions + Networks”.

With its philosophy of “Excellence in Connectivity Solutions”, the HUBER+SUHNER Group has given itself a clear profile for the future. As part of an extensive restructuring programme, the organisation was strategically re-oriented toward the three core competencies ofradio frequency, fiber optic and cable & polymer technology. The Group now focuses on the supply of components and systems associated with electrical and optical interconnection technology. At the centre of all activities are the three main markets: Communication, Transport and Industrial.

In the course of this strategic focus, HUBER+SUHNER in 2003 sold on the one hand the German company MRS GmbH in a management buy-out and the cable manufacturer Champlain Cable Corporation in the USA to a local group of investors. On the other hand, the Group discontinued its industrial rollers and polyurethane mouldings activities at its Swiss site in Pfäffikon, selling them to a Belgian investor group.

Nevertheless, the year 2003 marked a trend reversal for HUBER+SUHNER. After two extremely difficult fiscal years, the Group restored its profitability. Dividends will be paid again after an interruption of just one year.

Now that HUBER+SUHNER has restored its profitability and is achieving success again, the Group is confident that it will be able to further increase its profitability and return to the path of growth.