Güntner is celebrating its 85th anniversary this year.
Güntner is celebrating its 85th anniversary this year.
Hans Güntner GmbH, which was the original name of the company, was founded in 1931 as a one-man business in a backyard in Munich. Today, the Güntner Group, which includes the sister companies Güntner GmbH & Co. KG, JAEGGI Hybridtechnologie AG and thermowave GmbH, boasts nine production facilities on four continents and almost 3,000 employees.
All aspects of the company's development have always been and continue to be shaped by internal driving forces. When Hans Güntner (pictured) was unable to find any components for a facility that he was planning, he decided to build them himself. Soon he was even supplying his competitors with his components and expanded his geographical market to the whole of Bavaria. The arrival of the first supermarkets and then later the big chains resulted in rapid business growth for him and he expanded his product range and geographical market accordingly. The required production capacity was obtained in 1960 when the company relocated to Germering and built its first manufacturing facility.
1963 was a difficult year for the firm. The company founder's two sons, Hubert and Hans, who were expected to take over the business, and two employees tragically lost their lives in a road accident. As a result, the future development of his company became less of a priority for Hans Güntner and in 1973 he sold it to an American firm. A few years later, that firm then sold the company to Güntner's shareholders. Once again, the decisive driving force came from within the company itself: In 1977, 14 shareholders took over the company as part of a management buyout in order to expand it internationally and broaden its technological base.
Following the takeover, the company continued to go from strength to strength: In 1988, the Group's largest production facility to date was built in Tata, Hungary; in 1992, in Berga, Thuringia, Germany, the sister company thermowave was founded as a manufacturer of plate heat exchangers; and in 1993, the Russian subsidiary in Moscow was set up. Then came the Indonesian production facility in 1995 and the plant in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2002. In 2008, Güntner took over the Brazilian company Frost Frio and finally in 2015 another production facility was built, this time in Sibiu, Romania.
Products now offered range from finned tube heat exchangers, microchannel heat exchangers and plate heat exchangers, to innovative adiabatic solutions for applications in the main business fields of industrial refrigeration, commercial refrigeration, energy and process cooling and air conditioning.
The company now has a global network of 55 subsidiaries.
It says that its success over the last 85 years is based on three key pillars: customer focus, high-quality products and innovation.
The company says that its evolution from a one-man business to a global company with 3,000 employees and a turnover recorded by the parent company A-HEAT AG of €320m in 2015 prove that it is on the right path, now and for the future.