2005 - 2019
America, Asia and new group structure as growth engine for Berndorf
Five years after the turn of the millennium, the world seemed to have truly entered the global age. Products from all over the world were being used all over the world. Technology from Berndorf was being used virtually “non-stop”. Touchscreens and LCD screens for the increasingly popular smartphones and tablet PCs ran off highly polished stainless steel belts manufactured by Berndorf. But steel belts for the laminate industry or for test benches in the Formula I automotive racing series also demonstrated the wide range of applications for Berndorf products.
While Berndorf Band had already established itself internationally as a pioneer in the 1970s and 1980s with sites in the USA, Japan, Korea and China, from 2005 the Berndorf Group increasingly developed a global structure through other subsidiaries. The expansion course, which saw Group revenue grow to 700 million euros in 2018, the year of the 175th anniversary, was made possible by a structural reorganization of the organization.
Fit for growth thanks to new group structure
Initially, Berndorf AG reduced its stake in Schoeller Bleckmann Oilfield Equipment AG (SBO AG) to 31 percent. The former subsidiary SBO AG became a sister company of Berndorf AG (BAG) in 2005. Like Berndorf Immobilien AG (BIMAG), which was founded another year later and is now involved in the development and modernization of industrial real estate, it was no longer part of the Berndorf Group.
As a result, Berndorf AG, which focused on its core operating business, presented itself as a net debt-free company. Such refreshed capital reserves gave the former metal goods factory from the Triesting Valley the opportunity to “reinvent” itself globally. With each expansion and deepening step, the image of a high-tech oriented industrial group became more clearly recognizable.
In 2006, for example, the newly formed joint venture Lumpi-Berndorf Draht- und Seilwerke, with sites in Berndorf and Linz, secured a strategically important market position for the Berndorf Group in the energy sector. In 2007, the acquisitions of SAFED and Rheinischer Press Pad strengthened important Group pillars such as the industrial furnace manufacturer AICHELIN and the surface structure specialist HUECK. Another new addition from the high-tech sector, the German mold-making company HASCO, which was founded in Germany in 1924 and has a broad global network, was established as a new pillar of the Group's growth.
Generational change at the top
In 2008, Berndorf AG reorganized the management of the company in line with the Group architecture. Majority shareholder Norbert Zimmermann completed the generational change at the top. 20 years after the management buy-out he initiated, he stepped down from operational management and took over as Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Berndorf AG. His long-standing colleague on the Management Board, Peter Pichler, succeeded him as CEO and led the company together with Dietmar Müller as CFO and Franz Viehböck as CTO.
The new three-member Management Board seamlessly continued the growth trajectory - both geographically and in terms of product technology. In 2012 and 2016, AICHELIN expanded its production and sales capacities, first in Europe and later in America, by acquiring Bosio in Slovenia and Atmosphere Group/AFC Holcroft in the USA.
The AICHELIN subsidiary in Beijing had already risen to become the market leader in China and served customers in Asia from there with high-quality industrial plants and systems for heat treatment. The specialist for spring steel wire Joh. Pengg AG was also able to further expand its locations in India in 2008 and the USA in 2016 with the help of joint ventures.
New additions drive global growth
The acquisition of the Bavarian company Venturetec Mechatronics (now Venturetec Rotating Systems) opened up new areas of business in mechatronics and medical technology, which have been expanded to date. Berndorf achieved global involvement in the high-tech automotive market with the acquisition of the southern German company stoba Präzisionstechnik.
For almost a decade - from 2011 to 2019 - the supplier of components for diesel engines formed a strong industrial pillar for Berndorf in this sector. In 2017, following the opening of a new production facility in the USA, the Berndorf subsidiary employed more than 900 people - almost a third of the entire Berndorf Group.
From 2019, the company, which had grown so strongly, continued to develop independently. Similar to SBO AG in 2005, stoba was spun off from the Berndorf Group into BAMAG (Berndorf AutoMotive AG) and became a new sister company of Berndorf AG. In 2023, Berndorf withdrew completely from its ownership role in the automotive sector as part of a management buy-out to the two long-standing stoba board members.



Science and technology in this time
2007/2008 - The USA and Europe are shaken by the worst financial crisis since 1945
2010 - The I-Pad, the first commercially successful tablet computer, is introduced by Apple
2011 - The German government decides to phase out nuclear energy production
2013 - The global economy slowly recovers from the severe financial crisis that broke out in 2008.
From this year onwards, the term “Internet of Things” begins to be used to describe the ubiquitous IT networking in people's professional and private lives.