Gerhard Glinzerer grows in heating technology and especially at the insulation materials subsidiary Hirsch.
The company’s website still lists 32 locations, “but now there are already 33 and two to three more are added every year,” says Gerhard Glinzerer, laughing about his subsidiary Hirsch Servo. The Carinthians produce EPS insulation boards (Porozell brand), protective packaging for electrical appliances (for Miele, Whirlpool, Samsung, Nespresso, etc.), cool boxes for fish (“they are produced directly at the fish farms”), and the machines for them .
Growth through acquisitions is the order of the day, “because we have recently been overtaken by Norwegians, but want to be Europe’s largest EPS manufacturer again. I also see acquisitions for high-density XPS for sealing buildings,” owner Glinzerer picks up the pace. A maximum of 20 million euros has been allocated for this.
In addition to Europe, Canada and the US are interesting in the field of transport packaging, “you have to be close to the equipment manufacturers, because long transport routes do not pay”. Hirsch, taken over from a deep crisis in 2014, has already quadrupled its turnover from 90 million euros to now more than 400 million euros.
In total, Glinzerer’s group of companies recently even amounted to more than 650 million euros with more than 3,500 employees. Because the parent company, the Viennese manufacturer of heating control technology Herz, is also constantly growing. In addition to bathroom taps, heating taps and underfloor heating, the trade with heat pumps, biomass boilers and storage systems is growing.
“We can supply everything up to the industrial installation and are probably the only one in Europe who has everything ourselves, from the insulation material to the new heating system including planning.” The factory in Pinkafeld has therefore just been expanded by 50 percent. The only limit at the moment is the staff, “otherwise we would immediately have a turnover of 700 million euros.” The 68-year-old entrepreneur now wants to arrange the future of the group step by step. “I’m thinking of a charitable foundation.”
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
