Breathe a sigh of relief at Windhager! The Salzburg company, which went bankrupt, has a new owner. There is also good news for the employees.
The Salzburg heating manufacturer Windhager from Seekirchen, which went bankrupt at the beginning of January, has been saved. The Upper Austrian water treatment plant BWT takes over the company, which is in economic difficulties. Curator Helmut Hüttinger confirmed to the APA on Thursday: “The contract was signed yesterday and the creditors committee has already approved it.”
Also new director
The price for the acquisition initially remained unknown. “But it is a reasonable amount. We are satisfied,” said Hüttinger. Strictly speaking, the buyer is not BWT, but rather its sister company “FIBA Beteiligungs- und Anlagen GmbH”, which already has interests in numerous other companies. As the curator said, approval from the competition authority is still pending.
“Windhager is an excellent brand and we have found a good solution here,” BWT boss Andreas Weißenbacher emphasized in the media. The Windhager name must be retained. The aim is to hire as many of the approximately 440 employees as possible. However, it is unrealistic to achieve this for all employees. Windhager employees were given the opportunity to move to the BWT headquarters in Mondsee on Wednesday. According to reports, a hiring freeze has already been implemented there. BWT director Weißenbacher will also become the new director of Windhager.
“Offer made”
He explained the acquisition of the heating manufacturer by saying that the company had been active in the field of energy technology for a long time. “This suits us perfectly.” And he expressed interest in taking over the new heat pump plant and logistics center in Pinsdorf (Gmunden district), which is already 85 percent complete. “We have made an offer.” However, because this concerns a different insolvency procedure, it is still completely unclear whether the contract will be awarded.
There is also good news for Windhager employees on another front: as the union reports, from this week employees will receive their outstanding wages through the bankruptcy compensation fund.
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.
