Swissmetal is a tradition-filled Swiss company. Our oldest plant, Swissmetal Boillat in Reconvilier, celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2005. To mark the occasion, we are not only writing the history of our company, but also giving it concrete form in an exhibition at Reconvilier.
Origins in the 19th century
Both of our plants arose in response to the Swiss watch industry's growing demand for brass to make watch movement plates. In 1855, a rolling mill and foundry, Bueche, Boillat & Cie., was founded in Reconvilier in the Bernese Jura. This company changed its name several times before the formation of Swissmetal: from 1960 it was called Boillat. The first plant in Dornach was also a rolling mill and foundry operated under the name Schweizerische Metallwerke AG Dornach.
1900–1986
At the start of the 20th century, the development of the two plants ran in parallel. Press and drawing shops were added to the rolling mills. Production expanded to include brass rods and later wires for lathe shops. Over the years, extrusion presses were purchased and drawing shops fitted up, while the rolling mills and foundries were also steadily expanded.
The product range grew along with the expansion of the production facilities. Boillat focused increasingly on small and medium dimensions, while Dornach concentrated on medium and large diameters. However, there were several overlapping rolled and drawn products in the range.
The watch industry played a major role for Boillat until the 1970s, when the electronics industry (telecommunications, IT etc) appeared as a rapidly growing market. Boillat also moved into the market for ball point pen tips shortly after the World War II. Applications for Dornach’s rolled products soon included munitions and coins alongside bottom plates for watches.
The precision turning industry was always a very important market for both plants' drawn products (rods and wires). From the 1950s, both plants produced not only brass but also other alloys, such as low-alloy copper, nickel silver and bronze.
Exports became increasingly important for both plants after the World War II, with sales to western Europe growing rapidly from the 1950s. There was strong growth in sales in the United States in the 1970s and to Asia in the 1990s.
As a result of Boillat’s specialization in smaller products, total employment and production volume were smaller than in Dornach, although turnover was more comparable in value terms. Ongoing investments significantly increased capacity and noticeably improved productivity.
The initial close links with the watch industry also involved close capital links. At Boillat in particular, major watch manufacturers and machinery as well as cable works were investors in the newly-formed Fonderie Boillat S.A. from 1917 onwards. At Dornach, the same cable works and banks were the main shareholders from 1934.
Foundation of Swissmetal
The overlapping of product ranges already described led to the formation of UMS Swiss Metal Works Ltd in 1986. The new entity also included the Selve plant in Thun in the Bernese Oberland. This plant, also founded at the end of the 19th century, had a similar product range, with the emphasis on rolling. In 1989 the effective reorganization under the Swissmetal brand was completed, with Boillat specializing in small and medium-sized pressed and drawn parts, Dornach focusing on medium and large pressed and drawn parts, and Selve concentrating on rolled products.
In 1989 UMS Swiss Metal Works Holding Ltd was formed. The plants were merged and lost their legal autonomy. The Group’s main shareholders were now SACT Cossonay Holding SA, ACMV Vevey Holding SA and Swiss Bank Corporation.
The 1990s
In 1990 the German company Busch-Jaeger Metallwerke GmbH was acquired. This company also specialized in smaller pressed and drawn products. In 1991 the decision was taken to close the Selve plant for market reasons. Except for munitions, coins and cymbals, the Selve products were divided up between Boillat and Dornach.
As a result, Boillat produced wires, rods and small profiles for ball point pen tips, the electronics industry, precision turning industry etc. Dornach manufactured rods, profiles and strips. These were sold primarily to the electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, lock, watch and clock, construction and precision turning industries.
In the 1990s, the automotive and aerospace industries were added to the list of customers, not least thanks to special alloys such as those produced on the Osprey spray forming system at Boillat. In Dornach, investment in a continuous conform extrusion plant led to advances in copper profile production, complementing an already broad range of profiles in brass and bronze for numerous applications.
Initially, UMS Ltd’s shares were listed in Geneva and Basel. In 1996 the SWX electronic Swiss stock exchange was opened in Zurich. A redistribution of USM Holding's share capital took place at the same time. The Swiss Bank Corporation (later UBS), Arlington Capital Management Ltd. (GB) and Alcatel (the successor to Cossonay) became the main shareholders. Alcatel was subsequently replaced by Relag AG and OZ Bankers.
Recent history since 2000
Due to the liquidity shortage at the Busch-Jaeger plant and the generally poor state of the German economy, the plant was deconsolidated at the end of 2002 and declared insolvent at the start of 2003. A moratorium agreement was signed with a banking consortium. The Group completed its refinancing in summer 2004, permitting a new start.
The restructuring programme, launched in 2003 and targeted at improving the return on capital of the company, has meantime been completed. A new company-wide software solution, SAP, was introduced as part of this restructuring, with all the central functions being integrated. The sales organization was reoriented to increase presence in the most important markets. Concentration on specialty products and innovation activities was accelerated and further investments were also made in production equipment.
Workers at the Reconvilier plant went on strike for ten days in autumn 2004, partly out of protest at the path to integration Swissmetal has been pursuing since 2003 and partly out of fear at losing the high degree of independence the site had previously enjoyed within the company. During 2005, an industrial investment plan was drawn up as part of the corporate strategy, under which foundry and extrusion press operations were to be centralized. This plan was presented to the public in autumn 2005 and was immediately endorsed by shareholders, suppliers and the workforce at Dornach. Opposing voices were to be heard on the periphery of Reconvilier. With the backing of local politicians, the Unia trade union and former managers at the site, peripheral parties representing regional interests launched an orchestrated media campaign against Swissmetal, its strategy and the Group Management in November 2005 in an attempt to force the company to abandon its industrial integration strategy. The campaign did not meet with success and further strike action was taken at the Reconvilier plant in February 2006. This second strike, of long duration, resulted in a loss of market share for the company, ultimately leading to mass redundancies (see Memorandum on the conflict in Reconvilier). In mid-February 2006, Swissmetal was able to announce the acquisition of Busch-Jaeger Metallwerk GmbH, Lüdenscheid. The German plant had been taken over by a group of investors in the wake of its insolvency in 2003 and had performed very positively in the intervening years. The renewed merger with Busch-Jaeger was the decisive factor in bringing about an end to the strike at the beginning of March 2006.
The end of the second strike provides Swissmetal with a constructive opportunity to move away from the tradition of individual plants operating in isolation and to speed up the process of the realizing industrial synergies that can be achieved by closer collaboration between the plants. The newly reacquired third site at Lüdenscheid, Busch-Jaeger, is a major source of such potential.
Further development of the company since 2006
In January 2007, Swissmetal took over the American trading company Avins Industrial Products Corp., Warren/NJ. With this step, Swissmetal was in a position to offer its customers not only its core products, produced from high quality copper alloys, but also products from external suppliers. Avins International AG was established in Switzerland at the same time, whilst work also commenced on the foundation of a structure of seven further Avins international subsidiaries. It was planned that these would not only to take over the complete sales, marketing and distribution activities of the Swissmetal Group, but also develop its trade activities. This enabled Swissmetal to position the trade business on broader foundations and to utilise existing channels with greater intensity.
During 2007, Swissmetal presented numerous innovative new developments at a wide range of events. Thus, the watch-making industry discovered the alloy NP6 for its integral precision parts. The high-performance alloys in demand by the aviation industry corresponded very closely with the alloy CN8 developed by Swissmetal and this material has since been certified by aircraft manufacturers for critical wearing parts.
Mid 2007 saw the entire group convert to a uniform IT base, with the site at Lüdenscheid being successfully integrated into the ERP system SAP. The advantages that this brought to the group included an increased transparency of business processes and the provision of an established basis for data and analysis. This was followed by the successful integration of the trading company Avins, which was completed in December.
The drive towards the industrial reorganisation of the company continued in 2007 and 2008, in order to further enhance competitiveness and efficiency. It was possible to consolidate all of the activities at the site in Reconvilier within one factory building, facilitating the closure of the second factory located just 500 meters away. Furthermore, production could be intensified through the relocation of machinery between the respective sites. The speedy implementation in 2005 and 2006 of well-discussed industrial concepts brought with it a restructuring of both Swiss sites, which could be implemented in close cooperation with the social partners. A large-scale social plan was agreed and realised.
Construction work on the hall for Swissmetal’s new extrusion press began back in 2006, and at the beginning of 2008 the company was able to open the new extrusion press at the Dornach site. At full capacity, the technical wonder is able to replace five old systems. The complete integration of the new extrusion press was delayed due to a requirement for technical adjustments and this presented the company with extensive challenges in 2008. Swissmetal and the extrusion press supplier are working flat out in order to increase the system output step-by-step, and to adjust the press to Swissmetal's demands for quality and production volume.
In 2008, Swissmetal received the first individual certification for the high performance alloy CN8 from the aviation industry. The third largest armaments company, BAE Systems Regional Aircraft, which acquires Swissmetal products from Swissmetal customers, played a primary role here. Thus, Swissmetal alloys can be utilised in the modernisation, maintenance and repair of aircraft. This has also provided the respective customers with long-term assurances for a reliable partnership.
2008 stood at the heart of the project phase for the heat-recovery roof tiles, which are produced from architectural bronze and facilitate the use of ambient heat for heat-recovery. Within the scope of this project, Swissmetal Design Solutions AG was able to obtain objects both in Switzerland and Germany. Even at this pre-industrial stage, potential customers are already exhibiting extensive interest in this intelligent product.
Following intensive testing, Swissmetal sounded the much longed for starting shot for the route to India in September 2008. Together with the long-term partner, Lee Vedla, the coming months shall witness the generation of the foundations at the Bhopal site for the finishing of pre-drawn wires from the factory at Lüdenscheid. The manufactured wire products for ballpoint pen tips have provided Swissmetal with the opportunity of offering Asian customers greater flexibility and shorter delivery times.
