12 October 2010 – A festive ceremony on 8 October 2010 marked Sika‘s official celebration of the company’s 100-year jubilee. In 1910 Kaspar Winkler launched the product Sika 1 with his newly founded firm; Sika 1 made mortar waterproof. Just eight years later the company achieved its breakthrough when the Swiss Federal Railway relied on Sika 1 to seal the newly electrified Gotthard Tunnel against ingress of water.
Molded by Growth and Success
The 100-year history of the family enterprise has been molded by growth and success. The Burkard-Schenker Family, descendents of the founder, brought the company onto the stock market in the 1970s and retained a majority shareholding. The additional capital allowed expansion into areas outside of construction chemicals as for example the automotive industry. The last ten years have been among the most turbulent: sales rose from CHF 2 billion to CHF 4.6 billion, to which the more then 40 companies acquired since 2000 contributed no small measure. The number of employees increased during that same period from 8 000 to some 12 500.
Sika’s Core Competencies Today
Since the year 2000 Sika’s core competencies are focused on sealing, bonding, damping, reinforcing and protecting load-bearing structures. The concrete admixture Sika® ViscoCrete®, launched in 2000, has developed into a significant pillar of revenue. Other business areas in Sika are also booming. Due to strong growth the company must invest in expansion and development of personnel and production capacity; the entire management organization has been newly structured. In addition, marketing and sales activities are rigorously oriented toward the four main customer groups Concrete Producers, Contractors, Distributors and Industry. Toward the end of the decade Sika felt the global recession. Nevertheless, during this trying period the company achieved widespread gains in market share. Today the Gotthard Base Tunnel is once more a significant project for Sika, for which the company makes its latest technologies available to support construction of the 57 kilometer long tunnel.
Further Growth of Sales Targeted
In advance of the jubilee celebrations Sika Senior Management from around the world travelled to Lucerne to discuss future perspectives of the enterprise in workshops. CEO Ernst Bärtschi pointed out in his address that in the last ten years Sika has been able to increase its market share in all areas. He expounded further the strategy by which Sika can achieve a market share of 20 percent in target markets with focused growth. “With this strategy, Sika will increase sales to CHF 8 billion within the next seven to eight years!” argued Bärtschi convincingly to the assembled management.
Support of a Professorship in Sustainability
Sika professes its obligation to the principles of sustainable development. Sika solutions help to reduce CO2 emissions in the building and construction sector, and water consumption in manufacturing of concrete. To emphasize this engagement, within the scope of its 100-year jubilee Sika is endowing a new professorship at a new institute to be founded at the ETH Zurich for sustainable civil engineering. Conjoined with this partnership is a grant to the ETH Zurich Foundation in the amount of CHF 7 million. Walter Grüebler, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sika AG: “The demands for environmentally friendly materials cannot be developed solely on the basis of existing experience, but require new solutions. It is therefore crucial that Sika advance a high level of scientific competence to enable ideas for sustainable innovations. The ETH Zurich is the ideal partner for this.”
Gratification to Employees
Sika’s Group Management and Board of Directors have also decided on the occasion of the 100-year celebration to pay all employees worldwide a jubilee award of CHF 1 000. With this award Group Management and the Board of Directors acknowledge on one hand the great efforts of all employees at all locations and in all business units and functions, and on the other hand the successful development of the company in recent years.
Celebrations and Gala Event
On the festive day itself, October 8, guests and Sika representatives rode with an extra train from Lucerne to the Gotthard Tunnel, the place where company founder Kaspar Winkler achieved the breakthrough to successful entrepreneur. In addition participants were able to view the New European Alpine Transit (NEAT) Project onsite, a week prior to the historic Gotthard Base Tunnel break. Sika is once again actively involved in this exceptionally important project for Switzerland and for European transit with a range of diverse products and services.
An evening gala event held at the Culture and Congress Centre Lucerne (KKL) with more than five hundred invited guests from around the world included representatives from government and business.
ABOUT SIKA
Sika AG, located in Baar, Switzerland, is a globally active company supplying the specialty chemicals markets. It is a leader in processing materials used in sealing, bonding, damping, reinforcing and protecting load-bearing structures in construction (buildings and infrastructure construction) and in industry (vehicle, building component and equipment production).
Sika’s product lines feature high-quality concrete admixtures, specialty mortars, sealants and adhesives, damping and reinforcing materials, structural strengthening systems, industrial flooring as well as roofing and waterproofing systems. Subsidiaries in more than 70 countries worldwide and approximately 12 000 employees link customers directly to Sika and ensure the success of all our partners. Sika achieves annual sales of CHF 4.2 billion. Visit our website at www.sika.com.
Contact
Dominik Slappnig
Corporate Communications & Investor Relations
Mobile: +41 79 236 52 64
Tel.: +41 58 436 68 00
Fax: +41 58 436 68 50
slappnig.dominik @ch.sika.com
