The Entire alltech Story - with Kurt Hersperger

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The Entire alltech Story - with Kurt Hersperger

6 July 2023

3 min. reading time

Updated: 7 July 2023

On the occasion of our current company brochure, we recently documented our company history. In our digital world, it naturally must not be missing as a blog post. Enjoy reading.

How the alltech story began

In 1997, Urs Lötscher, Walter Kienzler, Roland Ming, Peter Habelt and today’s board delegate Kurt Hersperger put their heads together and looked for a management buy-out solution (MBO) for an installation company hit by the real estate crisis. These were intense weeks that influenced the lives of all founders

and whose consequences still shape the company culture today. The banks were not in a giving mood, so the group found a solution themselves in the form of a private investor. He invested not only his money but also his entrepreneurial skills, with which alltech Installationen AG was built up in record time. Kurt Hersperger recalls the start on 1 May 1997:

We were able to offer a future at alltech to around 40 employees. Each and every one of them helped us on this public holiday to downsize the "old" warehouse and prepare the infrastructure for our joint adventure.

The first steps

In the first six months, we were able to draw on the orders already won by the predecessor company. But after just three months, we secured the first "own" major contract for Baloise. Kurt Hersperger clearly remembers how exhausting the acquisition was at that time:

Although we had all been working in the industry for years, we had to completely rebuild our network of contacts because almost all construction consortia were shattered by the real estate crisis.

Stable growth

It was also the investments in our managers and the nurturing of the network that helped us achieve stable growth and first prestigious contracts such as the St. Jakob-Park in 2001 and the Messeturm in 2002. However, the growth, especially the many major renovations in the sanitary sector, presented us with new challenges.

The dependence on our suppliers eventually became a thorn in our side. Therefore, in 2012, we invested in prefabrication in Arlesheim. This allowed us a certain temporal flexibility in carrying out major renovations. We also reached our limits in our office premises in Kleinhüningen. Floor plan, space conditions, warehouse and logistics. All of this eventually no longer suited us, which is why we moved to our current headquarters in Muttenz in January 2014.

Personnel as the key to success

The professional accolade then followed through the first orders in the pharmaceutical industry. We were allowed to equip around two-thirds of the new buildings on the Novartis campus with our sanitary or heating installations. Kurt Hersperger knows exactly how this came about:

It may sound simple, but it is enormously important to me: The key to the Novartis campus and other contracts is our workforce, which we have largely trained and further educated ourselves. They occupy our key positions, are motivated and give alltech its face. And that is exactly what our customers appreciate.

Strategic orientation

We will continue to adhere to the personnel strategy in the alltech story in the future. Apart from that, we regularly reflect on and question our strategy. That is also the reason why we built up a specialist team in Arlesheim in 2012, which is exclusively concerned with the needs of private customers. The business with service orders and small conversions has since increased massively and is now an important cornerstone of alltech Installationen AG.

The next generation is ready

Asked about his personal future, Kurt Hersperger is relaxed. Those who know him know that the topic of succession planning has always been very close to his heart.

We set the course early in this regard, and that is also the reason why we are excellently positioned in management today.

The management consists of the two former co-founders Peter Habelt and Roland Ming, who can contribute their decades of experience and the so important spirit of our company every day. Then there are the two home-grown talents Mauro Fusco, our CEO, and Josef D’Aurelio, who are excellently trained and in their prime. And the team is rounded off by the second generation of the founders with Tamara and Yannick Hersperger. They have matured in recent years and are now ready to lead alltech into a successful future. The question arises with a wink as to what Kurt Hersperger will actually do in the future…

In case of bottlenecks, I still support operationally; otherwise, I see myself mainly in the role of mentor in the coming years, and I am really looking forward to that.

More content about alltech can be found in our current company brochure: