Top-Werk Group continues to grow

According to the parties involved the merger of the Top-Werk Group with the Hess Group will create the world‘s largest provider of machines and equipment for industrially manufactured concrete products.

The Hess Group, headquartered in Burbach and a leading provider of machines and equipment for high-quality finished concrete products, and the Top-Werk Group, with its long-standing companies SR-Schind-ler Maschinen-Anlagentechnik GmbH in Regensburg and Prinzing GmbH Anlagentechnik und Formenbau in Blaubeuren, are merging under the umbrella structure of Top-Werk GmbH. This merger will create a corporate group operating globally at over a dozen locations that will secure a clear leading position in the market of machines and equipment for the construction materials industry thanks to its comprehensive offerings of high-quality manufacturing technology and integrated production solutions covering all aspects of the concrete blocks and slabs, concrete pipes and aerated concrete product groups. The transaction was signed in November and executed on December 23.

A greater degree of process integration and automation

Client expectations of providers of high-quality machines and equipment for the concrete industry have been constantly on the rise in recent years. They still demand machines that are reliable, efficient and powerful, but they are also increasingly asking for more flexibility with regard to the end products‘ design, colour and surfaces as well as more processing options and a significantly greater degree of process integration and automation. This insight was one of the key factors driving the merger.

With its comprehensive offerings of machines and equipment for the construction materials industry – in particular, the high-performance equipment for manufacturing concrete blocks, aerated concrete, concrete pipes and mixer machines – the Hess Group has long held an important position with the manufacturers of high-quality concrete products. The Hess product range stands to benefit greatly from the integration with the complementary offerings of the former Top-Werk companies SR Schindler (concrete slabs and coating equipment) and Prinzing (concrete products for infrastructure). Hess has a workforce of around 750 employees at production sites in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Russia, China, India and Mexico, as well as sales and service centres in Canada and Dubai.

The merger is receiving corporate and financial advice from CGS, an international industrial investor with roots in Switzerland.

Fully integrated provider of solutions

The long-standing managing directors Walter Hess and Roland Krause have already handed over the operational management to a three-person management body in 2010. Ralf Beier, Tobias Hess and Friedrich Krombach shall now join Top-Werk‘s managing directors, Georg Prinzing and Richard Scheuerlein, entering the management of the extended corporate group.

The expanded and significantly strengthened group of companies will in the future be able to attend much better to clients‘ needs and considerably increase the scope and appeal of their innovative market offerings, as their resources and competencies shall be one-of-a-kind in the sector – at least in this combination.

Ralf Beier, CEO of the Hess Group and designated spokesperson for the extended Management Board, said: “With the merger of the Hess Group with Top-Werk and the companies Prinzing and SR Schindler, an organization is emerging that brings together all the fields of modern machine and equipment production for industrially manufactured concrete products under the same roof. This will allow us to satisfy clients‘ needs even better and offer integrated single-source solutions with unprecedented dimensions.“

Christoph Haller, managing partner of CGS Management, adds: “With this merger, we are reaching another significant milestone on the way to unleashing the huge potential inherent in a consolidation of these various strengths in machine and equipment production for high-quality concrete products. The first fully integrated provider of solutions for the industrial manufacturing of all kinds of concrete products is emerging, which in the long run increases the benefits offered by the expanded Top-Werk Group to its clients around the world.“